Three Outlaw Samurai (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Not going to give the plot away with a synopsis, but I can say that this is truly an enjoyable movie. I will put it in the same category with The Seven Samurai, Roshomon, and The Hidden Fortress.

Great story martial arts classic

I love a good samurai movie, and this doesn't disappoint. The fencing or swordsmanship is a little rougher than other films in the genre, but the story is solid stuff. Abused peasants take a hostage to get a better deal from their abusive lord, and three ronin are drawn away from law and convention of the time into the right and honorable path. This film actually takes some cues from Kurosawa's films, from Seven Samurai to Yojimbo, and a couple others as well. Even so the shooting style is a bit different, and more in style with the cinematography of more popular films of the time. The acting is typical high energy angsty Japanese thesping, and serves the film well. There's a kind of near comedic lighting style mixed with a kind of niore like lighting style. You'll note the change as the film progresses. Again, this is a really good story put together by a top quality Japanese production team. One gets the sense that there may have been a sequel or two planned, but so far as I know there never were any. Once again, they don't make them like this anymore, and I simply couldn't tell you why. As much as I love online gaming, I do love a good solid film. And that's what you have here. Check it out and enjoy.

Three Outlaw Samurai is easily the best samurai film to give to someone who wants to get into the samurai genre. Why? For one, it has a very simple plot with extremely likeable characters to follow. Second, it's only around 90 minutes, which anyone can handle. Third, there is some very intelligent and powerful emotional themes going on with this film. And fourth, the action scenes are to die for. Seriously, the final 30 minutes features some of the best action choreography I have ever seen. Everyone must watch this, it has humor, drama, action, suspense, and wonderful camerawork. It isn't as powerful as say Samurai Rebellion, Seven Samurai, or Harakiri, but it is a lot more like a well made summer blockbuster with heart and wit.

I started watching, and quickly realized it looked familar. I think i caught it on IFC or Sundance channel a few years ago, but it doesn't matter, because i enjoyed it all over again. A great Samurai flik, with heros and villians fighting it out over and over again. Peasants kidnap the daughter of the local magistrate who is mistreating them, and are unexpectedly helped by a rouge Samurai. The Magistrate sends outlaws to kill them, but one of them desides to fight for the peasants too. It's a well told story, with good characters, good action, and well worth the money.

I never heard of this movie before stumbling upon it on Amazon, after watching I can safely say this is a great film that everyone should see. The direction is amazing, the characters are layered, complex, and each have different goals. The action is very well choreographed, I was simply blown away and shocked I'd never heard of it. It's about a samurai stumbling on a village quarrel between three peasants and the town mayor, and the samurai gaining allies and helping the villagers (classic stuff). It's all beautifully built up to an excellent finale. I highly recommend this forgotten classic.

Saw the 2012 Criterion bluray release. Very good copy, great visuals and sound, and subtitles. No extras, not even a commentary track, which is unusual for Criterion. The film itself, though it borrows a bit from 1961's "Yojimbo" (among others), is a Samurai classic with engrossing script, fine acting/direction/cinematography, and a reasonably high level of realism, enough that it has aged well.

Three Outlaw Samurai tells the tale of three ronin who come together when a band of peasants kidnap the daughter of a corrupt magistrate who endlessly taxes them. As the movie goes on, it shows themes such as loyalty, friendship, respect and honor. This is actually the first samurai movie I've ever seen, and now I want to see more. This blu-ray from Criterion is lacking on special features (the only thing it has is the original trailer), but it's still worth a buy if you love samurai movies. Recommended!

Solid adventure action film that Hollywood could never improve on. The Japanese are so rich in emotion but so paralyzed by pride and tradition

カッコイイ絵のジャケットが良い！ 本編も殺陣の演出が素晴らしい！

La película llegó a tiempo y en buen estado. Muy buena película, un clásico del cine de samurais.

Three Outlaw Samurai is the debut movie from Japanese film director Hideo Gosha. It was released in 1964 and stars Tetsuro Tamba, Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira. The film is roughly ninety three minutes long and is a well known classic in the Chambara (Samurai) film genre. The films plot is reasonably straight forward. A group of peasants have kidnapped the daughter of a local corrupt magistrate. Testuro Tamba who plays the lead Sakon Shiba, a lone wanderer Ronin who finds himself involved in the situation. The magistrate played by Hisashi Igawa hires the samurai Sakura and Kikyo (Nagato and Hira) as well as a force of local goons to stop the kidnappers from delivering a petition that could secure them a much fairer life. With the plot going through several twists and turns, the allegiance of the two hired samurai change and results in a great climactic ending. I found Three Outlaw Samurai to be a fairly enjoyable watch. The plot was easy enough to follow and I really enjoyed the acting from all the lead characters. You'll find a lot of the stereotypical samurai movie tropes here. Not all of them play out the way you'd expect and that's good. The movie has a few surprises up its sleeve and it's definitely a strong point of the film. The film has been beautiful shot with some lovely out door set pieces, the usual forests and rivers that you tend to see in these films. The in door sets all looked very authentic and not nearly as cheap as a lot of other samurai films I have seen. You could believe that these characters were actually on location somewhere, instead of being in a cheap Toho recycled sound stage (perhaps they were, I don't know). The quality of this Criterion release is absolutely stunning. The bluray case features some nice art work by Greg Ruth and contains a booklet containing an essay written by Bilge Ebiri. The image is extremely sharp and has a lot of depth. I love seeing these sort of films with this much detail. It really lets you appreciate the beauty of the locations that the films were shot in. It's all in black and white which is a bit of a shame. I can imagine that this film would look impressive if it were in colour. However, I have grown very use to seeing films without colour of the years with my purchase of silent and a early samurai films. It doesn't bother me in the slightest, especially when it's presented in such high quality. In terms of print damage, there was barely any. There were only a few moments where issues popped up and was minor at best. It looked like a hair or something popping up in the top left corner but it was literally in the film ten minutes. At least, that's how long I noticed it was there. Three Outlaw Samurai looks considerably better than the Kurosawa movies I have previously purchased with the Criterion label, giving this film a good edge on those classics. Apparently Three Outlaw Samurai was a big influence on the Rian Johnson Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi. That abomination is the only reason I knew this movie existed and was the reason I initially pre-ordered it. Truth be told, this film is on a whole different level from that piece of bantha poodoo. If there's similarities between this film and that Star Wars movie, I don't see it. This one is very skillfully crafted and looks timeless. The Last Jedi however, it's one of the worst modern science fiction movies I've seen. The plot is twice as long as it should, has sub plots that add nothing to the story and have many unlikable characters (including the Mary Sue heroes we're suppose to love). If you have grown to hate that movie as much as I have, please don't let the constant references between the two put you off from seeing this film. In terms of enjoyment, I still much prefer the likes of Harakiri, Throne of Blood and Seven Samurai. With that said, this is still a great film. A highly enjoyable movie that I would certainly recommend for fans of this genre. I can understand if the asking price is a bit much for folks, it's the Criterion standard unfortunately. but if you do decide to dive with this version of the film. I can guarantee you, you won't be disappointed with the quality.

Compré esta edición hace unos años y esperé para poder verla, mi tristeza fue que la película esaba dañada y no pude acabar de verla y sin oportunidad de cambiarla.