A late happy birthday.

I'd like to be in for Way of the Samurai, depending on whether you consider Blind Fury to fall under the acceptable term of a samurai film or not. Pending that, I'll either pull up something else or just back out entirely.

Edit, as promised in a later post:

I have a weird multi-level appreciation for Blind Fury. While yes, technically not a samurai film, it is an American take on one of the Zatoichi films. That said, it's still a pretty quality film. It's a film I originally saw as a young kid. My father and I tended to watch a lot of what most people would call "action trash of the '80s and '90s". Basically stuff with Sly, Arnie, the Muscles from Brussels, Segal, etc. So when I first saw this one, it was registered to me as a bit different than what I was used to. Here was Rutger Hauer as blind 'Nam vet Nick Parker, carrying around a sword and I'm just thinking after being so used to "break out the guns and the action never stops from that point on" that this guy is just going to get mowed down as soon as he tries to do anything. But, little did I fully grasp at the time, I was absolutely wrong. Flash forward to me in my mid-teenage years and I'm finding myself with the option to watch Blind Fury again. I think to myself at the time "I remember this!" and start to watch it. At this point, I'm more aware of things like the story the film is based on and I have a greater appreciation for Hauer's talents as an actor overall (among a cast of great actors in that film who, at this time I recognize right and left and just find myself smiling smugly thinking - damn, this film is amazing).

But, staying honorable to the rule of a samurai film, I'll add Sword of the Stranger. While true, it's an anime film, it's a damned good one. It's also one that, despite a critical piece of its plot revolving around immortality, never really goes into the ridiculousness that one might often find in anime or just animated films in general.

It follows the familiar Lone Wolf and Cub/etc. setup with its story overall (wandering ronin befriends young child, sets off on adventure) but it tells it so compellingly that it's so easy to forget that it's a format that gets done more often than one might realize (even in American cinema).

It's also, without making any high claim toward accuracy or anything, fairly grounded in reality with its approach to cultural clashes between the soldiers of the Ming dynasty and the samurai under the employ of a feudal lord. Where it stops being realistic, not to its detriment though, is the action sequences. My god... the glorious action sequences. The sword fights in this film are things that I wished were possible to pull off in live-action without the use of extensive CGI or grave bodily harm to actors and stunt teams. They really are a sight to behold.

I also love the score, which weirdly enough, is what I first heard before ever actually seeing the film. After first hearing it, I thought to myself "damn, that was so good that the actual film must be world rockingly good". After seeing it, I was glad to find I was not wrong in the slightest.

(Also, not to forget a critical part - thanks for hosting this giveaway. I didn't expect to get the opportunity to bring up Blind Fury outside of a Rutger Hauer memorial thread and any excuse I have to sing the praises of Sword of the Stranger is also welcomed)