Samurai Assassin
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| Samurai Assassin | |
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 Theatrical poster for Samurai Assassin (1965) |
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| Directed by | Kihachi Okamoto |
| Produced by | Toshirō Mifune Reiji Miwa Masao Suzuki Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Written by | Jiromasa Gunji (story) Shinobu Hashimoto |
| Starring | Toshirō Mifune Keiju Kobayashi Michiyo Aratama Yûnosuke Itō Eijirō Tono Tatsuyoshi Ehara Tadao Nakamaru Shiro Otsude Yoshio Inaba Akihiko Hirata Eisei Amamoto Ikio Sawamura |
| Music by | Masaru Satō |
| Cinematography | Hiroshi Murai |
| Editing by | Yoshitami Kuroiwa |
| Distributed by | Toho Company Ltd. (Japan) Toho International Company Inc. (1966, USA) |
| Release date(s) | January 3, 1965 (Japan) March 5, 1965 (USA) |
| Running time | 123 min. |
| Language | Japanese |
| IMDb profile | |
Samurai Assassin (侍 Samurai ?) is a 1965 Japanese movie directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshiro Mifune, Koshiro Matsumoto, Yunosuke Ito, and Michiyo Aratama.
Samurai Assassin is set in 1860, immediately before the Meiji Restoration changed Japanese society forever by doing away with the castes in society and reducing the position of the samurai class. It is a typical samurai movie, with lots of conversation, beautiful black and white photography and a swordfight at the end. This movie is rather quiet in as far as the main part of the action goes.
The film tells the story of Niiro Tsurichiyo (Mifune) as the illegitimate son of a powerful nobleman, and the way of his life that made him a swordfighter but also a social outcast. The film is based on a novel, which in turn was inspired by a real event: the assassination of feudal lord Ii Naosuke outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle.
