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Dr. Wayne Stein > > The Way of the Sword

Samurai Narratives: Film, Manga, and Anime ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅

ENG 4910 and ENG 5910 Samurai Films and Literature

It starts with love. . .

I taught a course on Japanese Samurai for years at a university, and I practiced the oldest samurai art: Katori Shito Ryu.

These are from the notes, so please enjoy

Dororo Trailer

[embed]DORORO (WistMix) 🏯

The irony of teaching about a disabled samurai is that I am now disabled from my cancer.

Blessings to all. . . . .Read more to be more alive. .

Course Description

The course examines the films and literature of the samurai. Students will read non-fiction, philosophy, and fiction. They will also explore samurai films and its influences into Western culture.

The samurai lore will be studied from Confucian, Shinto and Buddhism viewpoints.

ENG 4910 Prerequisites: ENG 1113 and ENG 1213. Senior standing.

ENG 5910 Prerequisites: Graduate Standing

Required Works: Texts and Films:

If you order online, be sure to add additional postage to insure you receive the works in a timely fashion. Deadlines will not be extended because you had to wait for the works.

1) Musashi, Miyamoto. A Book of Five Rings. Thomas Clearly trans. Shambala, 2010. ISBN-10: 1590308913.

2) Koike, Kazuo and Goseki Kojima. Lone Wolf and Cub Omnibus. Dark Horse. 2013. ISBN-10: 1616551348.

3) Koike, Kazuo and Kazuo Kamimura. Lady Snowblood . The Deep-Seated Grudge Part 1. Dark Horse. ISBN-10: 1593073852.

Required Films:

*Tale of Zaitoichi (1962), directed by Kenji Misumi*

*Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972), directed by Kenji Misumi*

*Ichi (2008), directed by Fumihiko Sori*

*Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto (1954), directed by Hiroshi Inagaki*

*Shigurui: Death Frenzy (2007), directed by Hiroshi Hamsaki*

*Samurai Fiction (1998), directed by Nakano Hiroyuki*

*The Twilight Samurai (2002), directed by Yoji Yamada*

Yojimbo (1961), directed by Akira Kurosawa

*13 Assassins (2010), directed by Takashi Miike*

Other Suggested Films:

*Seven Samurai (1954, 207 min), directed by Akira Kurosawa*

*Sword of Doom (1966), directed by Kihachi Okamoto*

*Last Samurai (2003), directed by Edward Zwick*

*Sword of the Stranger (2009), directed by Masahiro Ando*

*Dororo (2007), directed by Akihiko Shiota*

Chushingura (1964), directed by Hiroshi Inagaki

*Six-String Samurai (1998), directed by Lance Mungia*

Osamu Tezuka’s “Dororo”

Created as a comic book tale (1967) by the god of manga, Osamu Tezuka, this strange tale would become a television series (1969), a video game (Blood Will Tell 2004), and later a live action movie (2007).

Sequels are coming.

Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga

Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989) is best known in the West for creating Astro Boy, which is a futuristic version of Pinocchio. In a sense, Dororo is another version of Astro Boy, this time set in the past during the age of samurai.

This supernatural samurai tale is about a boy, Hyakkimura (100 Demons boy cursed by demons. He has no limbs and no face. He is raised by a shaman who gives him artificial limbs and creates a face for him. His father is a desire to rule a kingdom gives his son’s limbs and body parts to 48 demons.

So when the son is born they want his entire body or what is left of it. Instead of killing the mutated boy, the boy grows up strong and is able to defeat each demon. As he defeats each demon a boy part is returned to him.

Along the way, Dororo, a boy thief (orphan), befriends Hyakkimura. In the live action version (2007), Dororo, is a girl.

Disabled Hero

Interestingly, samurai films and their Chinese wuxia pian/kung fu counterparts often have disabled heroes like the Zatoichi (blind samurai) series with some 26 films, and even a television series starring Shintaro Katsu. Wuxia pian had the famous One-Armed Swordsman (1967, 1969, 1971, 1976) series with Jimmy Wang Yu who fights with a broken blade.

Indeed, there was even Zatoichi 22: Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1971) . There was also the kung fu film, One-Armed Boxer (1971) also starring Jimmy Wang Yu.**

There was even a Vietnam War version of Zatoichi called Blind Fury (1989) with Rutger Hauer who also played a cyborg (replicant) in Blade Runner (1982).

Spaghetti Western Blind Man (1971), directed by Ferdinando Baldi, and starring Tony Anthony who also wrote the screenplay, perhaps was modeled on Zatoichi. Ringo Starr also has a role.

Thank you for reading. . .

It starts with love. . .