Re: What Have You Watched Recently?
Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress. An interestingly different Samurai film; being set in the warring states perod before the formation of the Tokugawa Shogunate, you have such interesting differences as real Ashigaru (professional foot-soldiers, not just peasant levies) and a lack of the later reverence for the sword as the "weapon of honor" (at one stage two Samurai duel, but choose spears, and I didn't see anyone wearing the daisho save in formal court dress).
Kurosawa was a true master of the craft, and it's obvious how this film influenced Lucas' Star Wars.