Severian-6

Well, this one is just extraordinary. I'm a fan of these 'chambara' pics, and I can honestly say I've never seen a samurai film before where the main protagonist is a sociopathic killer (and, no, I wouldn't count Ogami Itto from the 'Lone Wolf & Cub' films in that category). Believe me, he is not a sympathetic character. Bizarrely, however, he can be viewed within the context of the movie as a kind of 'destroying angel', with each of his victims deserving his/her fate for one reason or another. Even the defenceless old man asks the Buddha for the gift of death (just before his wish is granted). As the film proceeds to its close, the body count rises and rises until it seems we perceive the action through the warped perspective of Ryunosuke himself, and it becomes impossible to tell if what we see is reality or simply his twisted fantasy. I wonder if Scorsese was partly inspired by this when he filmed 'Taxi Driver'. You owe it to yourself to watch this one. Just a shame that the DVD itself is not a bit more interesting.

One of the greatest films ever made, and my all-time number one ever since I first saw it on BBC 2 when I was a sprog. An essentially simple tale of peasant farmers hiring a band of ronin to protect their village from an impending bandit raid, this movie has everything going for it - action, comedy, romance, tragedy, musings on the lot of humanity, beautiful cinematography, a sparkling script, stunning location work, and mesmerising performances from the "Kurosawa-gumi", Akira Kurosawa's core selection of actors with whom he worked again and again.

Aside from the legendary Toshiro Mifune's highly-entertaining and eccentric turn as Kikuchiyo, the peasant-turned-ronin (reminiscent of his earlier performance as the bandit in "Rashomon"), there is Takashi Shimura as Kambei, the world-weary and self-effacing leader of the samurai, and Daisuke Kato as Shichiroji, his efficient second-in-command. Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara (who Kurosawa would later cast as the comic peasants Tahei and Mataschichi in "The Hidden Fortress", the twin inspirations for C3PO and R2D2 of "Star Wars" fame) are present as, respectively, the cheerful ronin Heihachi and the weaselly, somewhat creepy villager Manzo. Also look out for Seiji Miyaguchi as the super-cool sword master Kyuzo. Then there's the wonderfully monkey-faced Bokuzen Hidari as the eternally timid and put-upon peasant Yohei. Finally, see if you can spot the famous Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him walk-on role as a passing samurai. The first time he'd worked for Kurosawa, but not the last by a long chalk.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who adores this movie - that's why John Sturges remade it in 1960 as The Magnificent Seven.