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Samurai Rebellion

Samurai Rebellion is a 1967 film from Japan, directed by Masaki Kobayashi, running 128 minutes. reelscum files it under chanbara.

Poster for Samurai Rebellion
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Year
1967 · 1960s films
Country
Japan
Runtime
128 min
Director
Masaki Kobayashi
Updated
29 Oct 2026
Obscurity
known (31/100)
Also known as
Samurai Rebellion

Defined in the glossary: Chanbara

Kobayashi and Mifune against feudal authority again. It builds slowly and then it does not stop.

Masaki Kobayashi and Toshiro Mifune make a companion piece to Harakiri, another study of an honourable man crushed by a dishonourable system. A retired swordsman's son is ordered to give up his beloved wife to satisfy a lord's whim, and the family's refusal sets off a confrontation with the whole feudal order.

It is slow, deliberate and controlled, and when the violence finally comes it is devastating precisely because the film has made you feel everything leading to it. Mifune, playing against his usual explosiveness, is superb.

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