Any good film depicting historical oriental warfare?

[Incendio]

I've only seen "The Opium War" (1997), 55 days at Peking (1963) and I barely remember a scene in Alexander (2004). Do you know good films depicting oriental warfare up to 19th century?

Thanks

[Halie Satanus]

Ran.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/

[athanaric]

Might wanna have a look at The Admiral - Roaring Currents. It's not 100% accurate and includes some silliness like emo ninja pirates, but overall it's quite impressive Also, there aren't many films about that particular era and region.

[Kyriakos]

Definitely NOT this:



Not sure about The Seven Samurai. The battle scenes were (imho) not very interesting (other than the duel between the samurai and some other in the village; but that was very brief).

[Incendio]

Thank you for your suggestions. Do you know any film depicting Three Kingdoms?

[Pinarius]

You mean besides Red Cliff?

[Knight of Heaven]

Yeah i was thinking about Red cliff.

[Pinarius]

Ran.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089881/

or Kagemusha, another late Akira Kurosawa movie:



(the trailer is rather misleading though as the movie isn't that much about battles)

[Kyriakos]

Why did every foot-soldier have to have a banner on his back?

[Halie Satanus]

Why did every foot-soldier have to have a banner on his back?

They wore the banners so they could tell who was who in battle...

[Kyriakos]

They wore the banners so they could tell who was who in battle...

Well, yes, but in Europe they also had battles ( ) and apparently they could tell who was who without needing banners-on-the-back. Couldn't they use some kind of uniform? (i suppose a flag is cheaper, though).

[athanaric]

I strongly suspect that it's a stylistic choice that filmmakers have made (influenced by selective bias on the basis of a few paintings or descriptions) and that actual historical battles in Japan had fewer flags and less uniformity. Maybe one of our resident Japan specialists may be able to elaborate.

[HannibalExMachina]

Well, yes, but in Europe they also had battles ( ) and apparently they could tell who was who without needing banners-on-the-back. Couldn't they use some kind of uniform? (i suppose a flag is cheaper, though).

it took europeans a long time to introduce uniforms, and maybe the banners were more practical at the time? better visibility? just a thought.

[Halie Satanus]

Well, yes, but in Europe they also had battles ( ) and apparently they could tell who was who without needing banners-on-the-back. Couldn't they use some kind of uniform? (i suppose a flag is cheaper, though).

In Europe soldiers carried shields, some had small banners or ribbons on thier spears, some wore specific hats, some with feathers, Knights horses were covered in heraldry... Japan is a relatively small group of Islands where opposing armies all looked very similar, especially the lower ranks who were mostly peasant conscripts who didn’t live long enough to warrant providing uniforms to.

[Roma_Victrix]

Akira Kurosawa's Ran is an awe-inspiring classic. John Woo's Red Cliffs is a fantastic film, but some of the fighting choreography in it is silly and fantastical, especially when it comes to depictions of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

Definitely NOT this:

...and most certainly not this!



The best part of the trailer is when Adrien Brody catches a sword (by the blade) that's thrown at his face, then says menacingly, "good throw". Goddamn this movie is bad. It even has an ancient Roman national anthem in it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[saxdude]

Might wanna have a look at The Admiral - Roaring Currents. It's not 100% accurate and includes some silliness like emo ninja pirates, but overall it's quite impressive Also, there aren't many films about that particular era and region.

I really liked that movie, hairy pirate samurai looked awesome.