Ichi travels to his old village four years after he stopped training. On the way he meets his childhood friend Tamekichi. Tamekichi, his wife and child have become poor, and must make a living with music. While at an inn, a group of travelers are robbed by four thieves but Ichi does not stop them.
Ichi is being taken to Doyoma, all expenses paid by an employee of Doyoma crime boss Hikozo, on the promise of just meeting with Hikozo, no obligation to do anything. On the way his guide is killed by Hikozo's rivals who overheard Ichi and his guide at a tea house. Ichi kills them including the husband of Hisa, a woman who watches the short fight. She tells him this when he asks and they part coolly.
Ichi (which is the main character's name, Zato being the lowest rank in the Todoza) is attacked by a young yakuza man he has never met. The man is despatched and tells Ichi that he did it to get ten ryo reward for his mother. Ichi travels to the mother's town and enters a local wrestling match and defeats several sighted opponents. While Maki, the young man's mother, accepts Ichi as honorable for confessing to the death, the opponents, part of a local Yakuza gang, seek to reclaim their honor by claiming Ichi's life.
Edo, 1630. Tsugumo Hanshirō arrives at the estate of the Ii clan and says that he wishes to commit seppuku within the courtyard of the palace. To deter him Saitō Kageyu (Rentarō Mikuni), the Daimyo's senior counselor, tells Hanshirō the story of another rōnin, Chijiiwa Motome – formerly of the same clan as Hanshirō.
Nine young samurai, including his nephew, believe that the lord chamberlain, Mutsuta, is corrupt after he tore up their petition against organised crime and said maybe he himself was behind the crimes. One of them tells the superintendent of this and he agrees to intervene. As the nine meet secretly at a shrine and discuss their problem, a ronin (Mifune) emerges from another room where he has been resting. The ronin has overheard their plans, and suggests that the superintendent is in fact the real corrupt official. While at first the samurai are insulted by his claims, they soon find themselves surrounded by the superintendent's men, proving that he was correct. The ronin hits a few of the attackers and bluffs their leader into leaving, taking only a small amount of money in reward to buy food because he is starving; however, after realizing that Mutsuta and his family must now be in danger, he decides to help the samurai bring down the corrupt officials.
The blind masseur Zatoichi is hired by yakuza gang-leader Sukegoro (Eijiro Yanagi) as he thinks that war is inevitable with the rival yakuza Shigezo (Ryuzo Shimada). Zatoichi has a distinguished reputation as a swordsman and Sukegoro thinks he is money well spent. Shigezo responds by hiring a ronin of similar repute, Miki Hirate (Shigeru Amachi). Ichi is a meek and humble man who is commonly underestimated by most men, and looked upon suspiciously. His being a masseur, which was a position of low regard in feudal Japan, merely increases the hostility that is shown towards him. They even try to take advantage of his blindness in a gambling den, but from early on it is clear that Zatoichi draws strength from his disability.
One year after the first film, Zatōichi travels back to the town near the Joshoji Temple, to pay respects at the grave of Hirate, the samurai he killed. Three brigands attack Zatōichi while he dries his clothes, and are despatched by a one-armed swordsman. Later that day, Zatōichi is hired to massage a powerful lord who, unbeknownst to all but the lord's highest retainers, is insane. Zatōichi observes the nobleman's unstable mental condition, and the retainers decide to kill him. Zatōichi defeats the first three attackers, and retires to a restaurant. The attack having failed, the lord's men hire local yakuza (gangsters) to finish the job. Learning of this, Zatoichi remarks to himself that he would have kept quiet if they had just asked him to do so.
Following their lord being forced to commit ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.
It is 1860, and the era of the Tokugawa shogunate is coming to a close. A rōnin, or masterless samurai, wanders into a small town divided by a gang war between two gangsters, Seibei and Ushitora. Ushitora used to be Seibei's right-hand man, until Seibei decided that his son Yoichiro would succeed him. Tazaemon, the silk merchant and mayor, backs Seibei, while Tokuemon the sake brewer is allied with Ushitora. Gonji, the owner of an inn, advises the stranger to leave while he can, but after sizing up the situation, the rōnin tells Gonji that the town would be better off with both sides dead, and that he intends to stay.
The plot is set about a decade after the battle of Sekigahara. Toshiro Mifune's character, Mohei is a contumacious wandering samurai with his very own point of view. He arrives in the city of Osaka to look for new beginning. As a background, unfolds a conspiracy of the Toyotomi clan to stop Lord Ieyasu Tokugawa's ambition for personal domination of Japan.
Premier volet des six films consacrés au légendaire samouraï Miyamoto Musashi qui, doué d'une force extraordinaire, choisit la voie du sabre et commence un long apprentissage fait d'ascétisme et de duels à mort.
A Mexican village is periodically raided for food and supplies by Calvera (Eli Wallach) and his bandits. As he and his men ride away from their latest visit, Calvera promises to return to loot the village again. Taking what meager goods they have, the village leaders ride to a town just inside the American border hoping to barter for weapons to defend themselves. While there, they encounter Chris Adams (Yul Brynner), a veteran Cajun gunslinger. After listening to their tale, Chris suggests that the village hire gunfighters, which would be cheaper than guns and ammunition. The village men relentlessly try to convince him to be their gunman. At first he agrees only to help them find men, but later he decides to recruit six other men to help him defend the village, despite the poor pay offered.