Ryan Reynolds, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Dwayne Johnson, Eiza González, and Vanessa Kirby in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

Gladiators, We Salute You!

 “The only reward of a slave is scars.”

Spartacus Spartaco (1953)

“[After quickly killing another gladiator]

Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?”

Maximus  Gladiator (2000)

“When a free man dies, he loses the pleasure of life. A slave loses his pain. Death is the only freedom a slave knows. That's why he's not afraid of it.”

Spartacus Spartacus (1960)

 Hail Rome, Hail the gladiators!

The Magnificent Gladiators (Gladiator films)

Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, John Gavin, Charles Laughton, Jean Simmons, and Peter Ustinov in Spartacus (1960)

Natasha Lyonne in But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

A list featuring the films that give the ultimate cinematic experience which I believe everyone should see at least once. Includes feature-length documentaries. *This list will continue to be updated with additional titles I consider 'Essential Cinema'.

Setsuko Hara and Chishû Ryû in Tokyo Story (1953)

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise (1995)

Jidaigeki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jidaigeki) (時代劇) are, for the purposes of this list, period Japanese movies and TV, ranging from the stately samurai films to the wilder exploitation movies. As well as samurai, we have the ronin, ninja, yakuza and just simple folk. Most are relatively straightly-told tales of swordplay, but some do head off in fantastical directions.

Inclusion criteria: Really anything set before the 20th Century, although I am prepared to be flexible if it is more rural and involves swordplay but occurs in the early 20th Century. I have also included some non-Japanese films that are set in the period and include samurai (or similar).

Recurring themes: Historical stories and characters that we often see cropping up include: Miyamoto Musashi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi), The 47 Ronin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty-seven_Ronin) (Chushingura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABshingura)), Jubei Yagyu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubei_Yagyu) and Shimizu no Jirocho.

Further reading: Patrick Galloway has released 2 books where he reviews 50 samurai films and gives profiles of the key directors and actors (but doesn't add much analysis or context, however, it is written in a nicely accessible way): Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves: The Samurai Film Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880656930/theempincwout-20) (2005) and Warring Clans, Flashing Blades: A Samurai Film Companion (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933330783/theempincwout-20) (2009); there is also: The Samurai Film (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585677809/theempincwout-20) (2007) by Alain Silver  and Samurai Films (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1842432559/theempincwout-20) (2008) by Roland Thorne. I haven't yet read Thorne's book but Silver's was exactly the kind of book I was looking for with an in-depth analysis of key directors, themes and characters, plus it includes a detailed filmography broken down by director or character/series or year - if you are looking to take your appreciation of jidaigeki onto a new level then that is the book for you.

Links/link: 50 Classic Samurai (Chambara, Jidaigeki) Films (http://www.ranker.com/list/50-classic-samurai-_chambara-jidaigeki_-films/stephenclark), a solid list, Jidai Geki (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JidaiGeki) at TV Tropes.

See also: Yakuza (http://www.imdb.com/list/eAKrQJxJ-zo/) and ninja films (http://www.imdb.com/list/1UnqAV4YAv4/), which often have a period setting.

Availability: A number of companies have done a lot of hard work finding these films and giving them high quality home media releases: Criterion (http://www.criterion.com/explore/19-samurai-cinema), AnimEigo (http://www.animeigo.com/products/samurai), Eureka (http://eurekavideo.co.uk) and the BFI (http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/cgi-bin/ss000003.pl?page=search&SS=samurai&search.x=0&search.y=0&PR=-1&TB=A). There are obvious problems with pre-1945 films from Japan but we still have some films from that period.

Comments: As I don't have a Facebook account I cannot interact with the new comments system, so have switched it off. I will start a thread on the message board and link it in here shortly.

A list featuring incredible films from across Asia - including China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and South Korea - that I believe should be seen at least once. *This list will be updated regularly with additional titles which I consider essential viewing.

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