Underplayed Gems

The Samurai (1962)

The Samurai poster
Original title
隠密剣士
Genre
Jidaigeki
Country
Japan
Length
10 seasons, 128 episodes
Rating
10.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is a Japanese historical action series from the 1960s about a spy swordsman during the samurai era. Each season tells a self-contained story arc with the hero fighting enemies. It became a cult hit in Australia and other countries.

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What happens

The Samurai is a Japanese historical fiction television series made by Senkosha Productions during the early 1960s. Its original Japanese title was Onmitsu Kenshi (隠密剣士; "Spy Swordsman"). The series premiered in 1962 on TBS and ran continuously until 1965 for ten self-contained story arcs (seasons), usually consisting of 13 episodes each. Also created were two black-and-white feature films by Toei Company, made in 1964 by the same crew which created the TV series, and a stage show. The Samurai proved to be highly successful despite its initially very limited budget. It was the first Japanese TV program ever screened in Australia, where it premiered in 1964 and built up a remarkably large fan-base among the local young audience at the time, rapidly becoming a cult favourite. Despite its massive popularity in Australia as well as success in Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines, the series was not widely screened elsewhere and its fame remains largely restricted to those countries. It was followed in 1965 by the spin-off series The New Samurai (新隠密剣士; Shin Onmitsu Kenshi), featuring a completely new main character; the spin-off ran only 39 episodes, compared to the 128 episodes of the original series. In 1973, a colour TV series was also made for 26 new episodes in an abortive attempt at a remake and then a short-lived reboot. All of the TV series were sponsored by the Takeda Pharmaceutical. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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