The best Shintarō Katsu’s history movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Shintarō Katsu’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Shintarō Katsu.
Ronin-gai
6.6/10
Near the end of Japanese civil war, several disgraced ronin living in Edo's red light district attempt to regain their honor by defending a brothel from a hostile militia bent on wiping out local prostitutes.
Hanzo the Razor: The Snare
7/10
Against the backdrop of the Edo treasury devaluing currency and driving many into poverty, Hanzo Itami enforces the law without regard to status. He shows inadequate respect to the treasurer, who wants him dead.
Zatoichi on the Road
7.2/10
Zatoichi is sworn to protect the life of a young girl and without any real allies finds himself in the middle of a bloody turf war.
Tenchu!
7.4/10
A ronin desperately seeks a way out of financial straits; he allies with the Tosa clan under the ruthless leader Takechi, who quickly takes advantage.
The Loyal 47 Ronin
7.3/10
Japan, 1701. A group of samurai become rônin after their lord is forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official, who will become the target of a merciless revenge.
The Great Wall
6.6/10
In 221 BC, Qin Shihuangdi conquered the rest of China. Qin's great accomplishments and also his serious faults are showed in this film. Qin adopted autocratic dictatorship and led a luxurious life: abolition of feudalism and the centralization of power in the form of a now-hereditary bureaucracy loyal to himself; burning books and burying scholars; the construction of a sumptuous palace for his concubines and also the Great Wall.
Tsukigata Hanpeita: Flover Reel; Storm Reel
6.5/10
During the bloody era of the Tokugawa Shogunate collapse, a man appeared capable of overthrowing a corrupt government and ending the feud between the Choshu and Satsuma clans. This is the story of Tsukigat Khanpayit, the sword maker of the Choshu clan, who, along with Katsuro Kogoro and Sakamoto Ryoma, sought to fulfill the dream of a new peaceful era in Japan. Can he realize his ideals or will he die in the chaos of internecine fights...
The Life of a Chivalrous Man in Suruga: Broken Swords
The second film in the "Suruga yukyoden" series, in which Shintaro Katsu plays Jirocho Shimizu. The film features Omasa, Komasa, Ocho, who will become Jirocho's wife, as well as other members of his future family. There is a particularly great swordfight near the end where Katsu and cronies attack the rival villainous yakuza clan to rescue their ailing, elderly boss. The action choreography, cinematography and editing of this sequence is quite brilliant, treading a difficult tightrope act between genuinely goofy antics and exhilirating, bloody violence.
