Against the backdrop of the Edo treasury devaluing currency and driving many into poverty, Hanzo Itami enforces the law without regard to status. He shows inadequate respect to the treasurer, who wants him dead.
Hanzo extracts a confession from a ghost using his assaulting methods, foils thieves, connects with Heisuke Takei a friend from his youth, offers protection to a forward-thinking physician Genan Sugino who has defamed his ruler, discovers a pleasure ring of young wives and a blind music teacher, and cuckolds a corrupt official under his very nose.
Fearless Edo-period police inspector Hanzo Itami, nicknamed The Razor, has developed his own unique way of extracting information for his inquiries. His first adventure sees him investigating his superior officer's mistress, whom he suspects of having ties with a reputed criminal on the loose.
A chance encounter on the road leads to the unusual need for a female bodyguard to protect the granddaughter of an old friend of Akiyama Kohei, a wealthy merchant who plans to bypass his son-in-law as head of the company. When Daijiro’s wife Mifuyu takes on the job strange things start to happen, including the brutal slaughter of company employees. With the backing of Lord Tanuma, a chief elder on the ruling council, Kohei, Daijiro, and Mifuyu form a plan to foil the kidnappers plot and save the girl from certain death.
Edo is rocked by the news that a duel to the death is to be held at Takadanobaba, the famed site of a bloody revenge fought by Nakayama Yasubei, who late married into the Ako clan where he was one of the 47 ronin who took vengeance against the vile Lord Kira. This hallowed spot is to host a match between two of the finest swordsmen in Edo. Each is backed by a high ranking direct vassal of the shogun, who had bet their family heirlooms on the outcome. The loser was to commit seppuku and have his clan disbanded. Meanwhile a band of brigands are placing their bets on the fencer who had earlier killed their leader. Can retired master swordsman Akiyama Kohei keep this from becoming a major disaster?
In the second film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto battles a group of female ninja in the employ of the Yagyu clan and must assassinate a traitor who plans to sell his clan's secrets to the Shogunate.
The rise of the famed gambler.
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
A cowardly samurai is sent as an official executioner targeting the clan's former sword instructor, a man whose sword and spear skills are second to none.
The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.
Returning to the village where a year before he had killed Hirate, a much-admired opponent, Zatoichi encounters another swordsman and former rival in love.
Frustrated with the bad behavior of his lord, Inaba Yajuro (Otomo) declares that he is leaving the clan and sets off on a journey that leads him into a small town besieged by a violent group of brigands. In a kind of homage to Kurosawa's 7 Samurai, the townspeople have been unable to defend themselves and Inaba sets out to teach them how to stand up for themselves. Meanwhile the vile Lord Yasumasa has sent the 4 finest swordsmen in the clan out to hunt Inaba down and kill him. Led by the magnificent Ichibei (Konoe), a master of weaponry in his own right, everything points to an ultimate showdown between the former friends in a battle to the death.
One rainy night in the Edo period, Kotono (a geisha) confronts samurais who killed her father. The samurais attack her one after another, but she fights hard against samurais with her sword. Kotono tries to chase the samurais who scramble to escape. Yet now three ninjas stand up against her. Kotono drops her sword by their wave of assaults. Can she beat them?
In the 14th year of the Genroku period, Asano, the head carpenter of Edo Castle, attacked Kira, the master of ceremonies, with a sword, leading to Asano's forced suicide and Kira's punishment being overlooked. Over a year later in Edo city, Shimohashi Hyogo, a carefree ronin and the nephew of Yagyu Yoshitaka, is ordered by his uncle to investigate the activities of the Ako Ronin, a group sympathetic to Asano's cause. However, Hyogo, who sympathizes with the Ronin's plight, helps out in times of need, rescuing Oishi Kuranosuke and Horibe Yahei from danger. He also teams up with Yaenosuke, a newspaper publisher, and Otaki, a geisha, to plan an attack on Kira's estate.
Thieves broke into Yamashiroya, a drug wholesaler, and stole 780 ryo. In the storehouse, there was a sticker with a picture of an umbrella, the signature of Yahei Kasayama, a great thief who once ransacked the entire Kanto region. Heizo Hasegawa (Kichiemon Nakamura), the director of the reform of the thieves, learns that the theft was the work of Yahei's son Yataro (Somegoro Ichikawa [now Koshiro Matsumoto]) and his gang, thanks to the help of a spy named Isaji (Koichi Miura). He learns that Yataro is in the process of marrying Oito (Tomoka Kurokawa), the daughter of Shigezo of Narumi, a great thief from Owari. Heizo learns the true identity of the thread and the evil plans of the second generation Narumi Shigezo (Fuse Hiroshi), and he meets Nagashima no Kugoro (Matsudaira Ken), a former thief who is trying to arrange a marriage deal to return the favor to the previous generation Kasayama and the previous generation Narumi. ) while hiding his identity...
In an era where aliens have invaded and taken over feudal Tokyo, a young samurai finds work however he can.
Five swordsmen are murdered and hung from a tree and the chase is on to find the killers. Two magistrates pursue the leads to solve the crime and it leads to a potential conspiracy to kill the Shogun.
After six exiles return to Edo, four are mysteriously killed. Two survivors, Kosuke and Kingo, lead a search to uncover a hidden motive behind the murders.
In Edo's autumn, a wave of murders hits, targeting those linked to an old case. A young man, Utaro, takes charge, but Dobu's love interest is involved.