Rare Samurai Movies?

[Shaolindogma]

I was thinking the other day about how the kung fu movie genre has many rare movies that not too many people have. Lost classics, movies that were destroyed, etc...

The rarest being Tiger Boy, with only one known copy to exist in the world and its in the Hong Kong film archive.

Are there any equivalents in the samurai/Japanese martial arts movies?

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Couldn't tell ya'. But the Japanese were way better at preserving their films and film stock, than the people in the HK/Taiwan film bussineses. So im sure there are some rarities out there, but nothing like the "hidden treasure chest" phenomenon you get with the old kung fu flicks. At least that's my theory. Maybe someone has different information.

[KevinC]

I’ll give you an indirect response to your question. There are tons of movies listed on the Japanese Movie Database that I do not know if anyone will ever see. There was a time that a lot of the movies you see today were next to impossible to find during the 1990’s. Examples like, Samurai Wolf 1 + 2, Goyokin, etc. were not commonplace. Today it's like, “Oh that has been around for years!”

Every once in a while, not on this board, I will see someone say some movie does not exist. If you are talking about having it on dvd that is true, but there is a lot of stuff preserved on vhs. This is what happens if one thinks that all knowledge of these movies comes from the internet.

One example is that Judo Saga with Mifune was supposedly lost. Then some French guys pressed the Japanese on a copy and out of nowhere one was found. There is a story that all movies prior to WW2 were destroyed during the war. Not true. Many were, and those are the hardest to find, but there are some out there. Ten years from now even more stuff will come out.

The real trick is getting them subtitled in English. Once that happens, they ain’t rare anymore. Lol.

[daisho2004]

OK to answer your question there are Tons of Japanese films that you've most problaly never heard of that are Excellent and I would consider Classics's. And while its true some will never see the light of day by a legit Company there are FanSubbers who have been around for years getting remastered prints and subtitling them for us to own. Some are from VHS prints that people have had for years and are making copies of them also. There are too many to name but some are in black&white and others in color. Some of the Greatest Japanese Actors like Mifune, Wayakama, Raizo, Katsu have movies that you will never find on any site but like I said there are only a handful of fansubbers who make it possible to get these movies.