Why I Like Samurai Movies
When I first introduced this blog I began with the statement – “My Grandpa likes westerns and my friends like superhero flicks, but I have a subjective preference for chanbara or samurai movies and have since before I became aware of their existence. Something about the tall, solitary warrior grim faced but honorable has always appealed to me more than burly men in spandex or John Wayne ever could have.” In that post I went on to confess that I had no level of understanding as to why I love samurai movies beyond the surface level concept of “I respond well to this genre.” As I’ve spent the hours watching a couple dozen Japanese sword fighting movies and writing about a number of them I’ve proceeded with two goals. First, I wanted to further educate myself on this corner of cinema, but more importantly I wanted to answer this question for myself: Why do I respond to these movies? I might be closer to an answer, if only for having let the question marinate for a f...
