Samurai Assassin (1964)

Based on the Sakurada Gate Incident of 1860, an assassination of a Shogunate official, that effectively marked the end of the Edo Period in Japan, SAMURAI ASSASSIN has long been considered one of the finest samurai films to come out of Japan. The film stars Toshiro Mifune as Niiro, a frustrated ronin who has agreed to take part in the coup against the Shogunate official in the hopes that it will secure him enough fame to earn him a position in a great Samurai house. A bastard child who has fallen into abject poverty despite his considerable skills, Niiro is willing to do anything in order to become a successful samurai, unaware that fate will never allow it.