Chanbara (ムャンムラ), also commonly spelled "chambara", meaning
"sword fighting" movies, denotes the Japanese film genre called
samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western western
(genre) and swashbuckler films. Chanbara is a sub-category of
jidaigeki, which equates to period drama. Jidaigeki may refer to a
story set in a historical period, though not necessarily dealing with
a samurai character or depicting swordplay.While earlier samurai
period pieces were more dramatic rather than action-based, samurai
movies produced after World War II have become more action-based, with
darker and more violent characters. Post-war samurai epics tended to
portray psychologically or physically scarred warriors. Akira Kurosawa
stylized and exaggerated death and violence in samurai epics. His
samurai, and many others portrayed in film, were solitary figures,
more often concerned with concealing their martial abilities, rather
than showing them off.Historically, the genre is usually set during
the Tokugawa era (1600â€"1868). The samurai film hence often focuses
on the end of an entire way of life for the samurai: many of the films
deal with masterless rÅ nin, or samurai dealing with changes to their
status resulting from a changing society.Samurai films were constantly
made into the early 1970s, but by then, overexposure on television,
the aging of the big stars of the genre, and the continued decline of
the mainstream Japanese film industry put a halt to most of the
production of this genre.
"sword fighting" movies, denotes the Japanese film genre called
samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western western
(genre) and swashbuckler films. Chanbara is a sub-category of
jidaigeki, which equates to period drama. Jidaigeki may refer to a
story set in a historical period, though not necessarily dealing with
a samurai character or depicting swordplay.While earlier samurai
period pieces were more dramatic rather than action-based, samurai
movies produced after World War II have become more action-based, with
darker and more violent characters. Post-war samurai epics tended to
portray psychologically or physically scarred warriors. Akira Kurosawa
stylized and exaggerated death and violence in samurai epics. His
samurai, and many others portrayed in film, were solitary figures,
more often concerned with concealing their martial abilities, rather
than showing them off.Historically, the genre is usually set during
the Tokugawa era (1600â€"1868). The samurai film hence often focuses
on the end of an entire way of life for the samurai: many of the films
deal with masterless rÅ nin, or samurai dealing with changes to their
status resulting from a changing society.Samurai films were constantly
made into the early 1970s, but by then, overexposure on television,
the aging of the big stars of the genre, and the continued decline of
the mainstream Japanese film industry put a halt to most of the
production of this genre.
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