The Mad Fox (Japan, 1962)

Amidst a mythically-depicted medieval Japan, a court astrologer foretells a great disturbance that threatens to split the realm in two. His bitter and treacherous wife conspires to have the astrologer killed, as well as their adopted daughter, Sakaki. The astrologer's master apprentice, Yasuna, who was in love with Sakaki, is driven mad with grief and escapes to the countryside. There, he encounters Sakaki's long-lost twin, Kuzunoha, and the pair meet a pack of ancient fox spirits in the woods, whose presence may be the key to restoring Yasuna s sanity, and in turn bringing peace to the fracturing nation.

Wow, what a magical film. At first glance The Mad Fox (a.k.a. Love, Thy Name Be Sorrow) seems to be your typical costume drama although with a much more fierce storyline involving a red sky that supposedly spells doom for man, but it's clear early on that director Tomu Uchida wanted to explore the folklore involving the kitsune, a.k.a. fox. With stunning backdrops and gorgeous sets we're transported back to a time of legends, swaying susuki grass and where shape-shifting beings roam the land. A film rooted in tradition and history, and obviously not a choice for those seeking tons of action but a gold mine for lovers of ancient Japan.

Genre: Drama/Fantasy

The Inheritance (Japan, 1962)

A dying businessman intends to will two hundred million yen to his three illegitimate children, but his associates scheme to take advantage of the situation.

In 1962, Masaki Kobayashi (Kwaidan, Harakiri) crafted this slick and thought provoking story where everyone's driving force is greed. There's been many films where characters are double-crossing each other for the sake of more money but few treat the lust for wealth as such a natural instinct. Kobayashi's outstanding camera work is present full force and it's obvious how he reached the same heights as his western contemporaries such as Alfred Hitchcock.  

Genre: Drama

Pitfall (Japan, 1962)

Penniless miners talk in passing about labor unions. A miner and his young son go to a village in Kyushu where the miner has been told he'll find work, but it's a ghost town, save for one woman. The miner leaves and is followed by a man in a white suit and white gloves. A murder takes place: faked footprints, bribery and intrigue, investigations, a frame-up, and a ghost who wants to know why meet in a story of realism and the surreal. A child mutely witnesses all.

Pitfall has an eerie and foreboding atmosphere, and also feels original. It contains social sattire, and the director portrays a flawed mining industry and added a twist with the ghost story. A big classic, this one.

Genre: Crime/Drama

Sanjuro (Japan, 1962)

Nine young samurai are worried about corruption in the leadership of their clan. They believe that the lord chamberlain, Mutsuta, is corrupt after tearing up a petition against organised crime. As they meet secretly at a temple and discuss their problem, a ronin emerges from another room where he had been resting. The ronin had overheard their plans, and suggests that the superintendent is in fact the real corrupt official. So now, a group of idealistic young men, determined to clean up the corruption in their town, are aided by a scruffy, cynical samurai who does not at all fit their concept of a noble warrior.

Sanjuro is a companion piece to Yojimbo (1961) and continues the story of the wandering ronin Sanjuro, once again played by Toshiro Mifune. It's a stand-alone film, but Toshiro plays the same care-free but skilled and good-natured samurai who this time has to help a group of warriors save their master. You can tell director Akira Kurosawa had a lot of fun with Mifune's character, making him a man who can do as he pleases as the other samurai and their enemies fights all around him, almost making him seem like a father overseeing a playground.

Genre: Action/Crime/Comedy

Harakiri (Japan, 1962)

Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri (self-inflicted disembowelment). An elder warrior, Hanshiro Tsugumo, seeks admittance to the house of a feudal lord to commit the act. There, he learns of the fate of his son-in-law, a young samurai who sought work at the house but was instead barbarically forced to commit hara-kiri. In flashbacks, Hanshiro tells the tragic story of his son-in-law, and how he was forced to sell his real sword to support his sick wife and child.

A fascinating, tragic samurai tale that explores and tears down the code which the samurai lives by. Director Masaki Kobayashi (Kwaidan) was a huge fan of Akira Kurosawa's work and managed to make a jidaigeki film that doesn't try to compete with Kurosawa's epics, but has numerous times been called an anti-samurai film due to how it throws the whole samurai establishment under a bus, and exposes a lot of hypocrisy. Many scenes has a genuine sense of tangible anxiety, when it dawns on the character that death is unavoidable. Delivers great dialogue and minimalistic cinematography, and under a thick layer of grain portrays a much more restrained story compared to other films in the genre. Actor Tatsuya Nakadai (Sword of Doom) plays the lead role, and has cited Harakiri as his favorite film.

Genre: Drama