Samurai Assassin
| Samurai Assassin | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster for Samurai Assassin (1965) | |
| Directed by | Kihachi Okamoto |
| Written by | Jiromasa Gunji (story) Shinobu Hashimoto |
| Produced by | Toshirō Mifune Reiji Miwa Masao Suzuki Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Starring | Toshirō Mifune Keiju Kobayashi Michiyo Aratama Yûnosuke Itō Eijirō Tono Tatsuyoshi Ehara Tadao Nakamaru Shiro Otsude Yoshio Inaba Akihiko Hirata Eisei Amamoto Ikio Sawamura |
| Cinematography | Hiroshi Murai |
| Edited by | Yoshitami Kuroiwa |
| Music by | Masaru Satō |
| Distributed by | Toho Company Ltd. (Japan) Toho International Company Inc. (1966, USA) |
Release dates | January 3, 1965 (Japan) March 5, 1965 (USA) |
Running time | 123 min. |
| Language | Japanese |
Samurai Assassin (侍, Samurai) is a 1965 Japanese movie directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshirō Mifune, Koshiro Matsumoto, Yunosuke Ito, and Michiyo Aratama.
Samurai Assassin is set in 1860, immediately before the Meiji Restoration changed Japanese society forever by doing away with the castes in society and reducing the position of the samurai class.
The film tells the story of Niiro Tsurichiyo (Mifune) as the illegitimate son of a powerful nobleman, and the way of his life that made him a swordfighter but also a social outcast. The film is based on a novel, which in turn was inspired by the historical Sakuradamon incident, in which the feudal lord Ii Naosuke was assassinated outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle.
