The Alamo Drafthouse Invites You to Take the Way of the Samurai
One of 2025’s biggest video games is the upcoming Ghost of Yōtei, the sequel to 2020’s highly acclaimed Ghost of Tsushima. To celebrate its release, The Alamo Drafthouse has announced Way of the Samurai, a series that highlights some of the most famous and iconic samurai films of all time.
The Tale of Zatoichi by Kenji Misumi
It’s easy to dismiss Zatoichi; after all, he’s just a blind masseur and gambler. But beneath his unassuming nature lies a master swordsman, and as he travels the Japanese countryside, his skills with the blade prove just as useful as his other abilities. Originally created by novelist Kan Shimozawa in 1948, Zatoichi became incredibly popular, spawning 26 movies between between 1962 and 1989 — all of which starred Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman — as well as a long-running TV series in the ’70s.
Lady Snowblood by Toshiya Fujita
After her husband and son are murdered by criminals, a prisoner seduces her guards in order to conceive a child that will avenge them all. Thus was born Yuki, aka Lady Snowblood, a beautiful woman raised to be a cold-blooded killer. Directed by Toshiya Fujita and starring Meiko Kaji in the lead role, Lady Snowblood is a classic Japanese exploitation film famous for its ultra-stylized bloodletting (read my review). Fun fact: Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill was hugely inspired by Lady Snowblood, and even used its haunting theme song (“The Flower of Carnage”).
13 Assassins by Takashi Miike
Takashi Miike is infamous for over-the-top exploitation films like Audition and Ichi the Killer. But in 2010, he applied his talents to a more traditional chanbara film about a group of samurai who are sent on a suicide mission to stop a depraved and sadistic warlord. Loosely based on Japanese history, 13 Assassins is actually a remake of an earlier film by Eiichi Kudo, and stars Koji Yakusho, one of Japan’s most esteemed actors.
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance by Kenji Misumi
Kazuo Koike’s Lone Wolf and Cub is one of the greatest and most influential manga series of all time, chronicling the adventures of a disgraced executioner and his son as they travel the Japanese countryside in order to avenge their family’s dishonor. Six Lone Wolf and Cub films were created in the early ’70s with Tomisaburo Wakayama in the lead role, and they were widely acclaimed for their stylized violence, over-the-top action sequences, and ingenious methods for dispatching bad guys.
Ran by Akira Kurosawa
When an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons, he sets in a motion a bloody series of events as brother turns against brother. Partially inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear, Akira Kurosawa’s final samurai film is an epic in every sense of the word, filled with massive set pieces, elaborate battles featuring hundreds of extras, and a towering performance by the legendary Tatsuya Nakadai as the warlord.