Samurai films are one of the most popular genres of film around the world. Historically, the genre is usually set during the Tokugawa era (1600–1868), the samurai film focuses on the end of an entire way of life for the samurai, many of the films deal with masterless ronin, or samurai dealing with changes to their status resulting from a changing society. In this list we count down the best of the best, that cover over a 50 year span of cinema.
Source: http://japancinema.net/2011/07/04/top-10-best-samurai-movies-of-all-time/