A. M. Samurai

Set during the 19th-century social upheaval that helped bring three centuries of shogunate rule to its knees, The Last Samurai follows Toranosuke (a physically and dramatically impressive Takahashi, former star of Seijun Suzuki's Fighting Elegy and Tattooed Life), a paragon of the valiant samurai who is confused by the changes happening around him. His codes tell him to defend the shogunate on the side of the Shinsengumi militia, but his teacher (Tamura of Yasuzo Masumura's Hoodlum Soldier series) has already defected to the other side and tells him it's time to lay down the sword and look toward the future. When the latter stealthily arranges for Toranosuke to meet the beautiful Reiko (Matsuzaka), the warrior's doubt begin to grow.

A veteran samurai, who has fallen on hard times, answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers 6 other samurai to help him, and they teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and they supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village.

For over a thousand years, the Samurai have been celebrated as an aristocratic warrior class. Exceptionally skilled and loyal until death, their very name has become a byword for honour and dignity. Now, for the first time on television, we reveal the unknown dark side of the Samurai - a fascinating tale of greed, treachery, extreme cruelty and violent death.

Long-running German label ZYX has continued to support the Italo-disco and revivalist European synth-pop scenes since the 1980s, when it was responsible for distributing many Italian records throughout Europe. Here, they dip into their archives for a second volume in the Italo-Disco Space Synth Collection series. While mostly focused on tracks produced since the early 2000s, there's an authentically old skool Italo feel to proceedings - think bubbling analogue synthesizer lines, spiraling outer-space melodies, deliciously camp builds and grandiose break-downs. Such is the authenticity of the retro-futurist sound showcased through out, you'd think that the tracks were produced in 1985, rather than 2015 (Galactic Warriors' "Alien Revenge", for example, sounds like a Bobby Orlando produced Pet Shop Boys B-side).

Samurai 7 tells the story of a village named Kanna. Every year during the harvest a group of bandits come and steal away almost all of the rice that had been harvested that year.
Not only that, the bandits are becoming more demanding, now taking women and children in addition to rice.