Samurai

Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, Seven Samurai was both the apex of Akira Kurosawa's long career and the high-water mark of the Japanese period drama. The film's action rivets the viewer in spite of the three-hour-plus running time: the battle sequences, among the best ever filmed, are immediate and visceral; and the characters are complex and so well-rendered that the viewer grieves when one dies..

Part of the acclaimed Book of Samurai series, which presents for the first time the translated scrolls of the historical Natori-Ryū samurai school of war, this volume offers an exceptional insight into the weaponry and armour of the samurai era, as well as tactical advice for use on and off the battlefield.

The long-awaited Samurai II: Vengeance has arrived on all Android devices! Samurai: Way of the Warrior was featured in Best Games of 2009 by Apple – Samurai II is a true successor, aided by over a year of focused development. Overall production values and vicious action put Samurai II on par with console 3D brawlers. Screenshots don’t do Samurai II justice – the fluid action has to be seen running at 60 frames per second.

Seibei Iguchi, a low-ranking samurai, leads a life without glory as a bureaucrat in the mid-XIX century Japan. A widower, he has charge of two daughters (whom he adores) and a senile mother; he must therefore work in the fields and accept piecework to make ends meet. New prospects seem to open up when Tomoe, his long-time love, divorces a brutal husband. However, even as the Japanese feudal system is unraveling, Seibei remains bound by the code of honour of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedences. The consequences are cruel.

The film begins in the summer of 1876, introducing Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a disenchanted ex-United States Army captain and an alcoholic, who is traumatized by his experience fighting in the Civil War and the Indian Wars. In the years following his army service, Algren makes his living by relating war stories to gun show…

Filled with dozens of woodblock prints and photographs, this Samurai history is an authoritative text on Japan's most fearsome warriors.