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(Welcome to The Movies That Made "Star Wars," a series where we explore the films and television properties that inspired George Lucas' iconic universe. In this edition: The classic jidaigeki film "Three Outlaw Samurai.")

As the first feature film from the legendary Japanese filmmaker Hideo Gosha, "Three Outlaw Samurai," holds a special place in the pantheon of Japanese films. It tells the story of three samurai who battle corruption and balance their honor and obedience to the system that produced them with doing what's actually right — something that feels almost radical in this style of filmmaking. The movie's stars — Tetsurô Tanba, Isamu Nagato, and Mikijirô Hira as the titular samurai — were reprising their roles from a television show with the same name that had started the year before. According to the essay by Bilge Eberi that accompanies the Criterion Collection's excellent Blu-ray transfer of the film, the original show seems lost to time.

“Mekura no Oichi” is a manga about a blind swordswoman created by Teruo Tanasita and adapted into four live action “Crimson Bat” films by the Shochiku Studio, all starring Yoko Matsuyama who’s also the creator Teruo’s wife. However, Sadatsugu was only responsible for directing the first two movies; Hirokazu Ichimura took over the last remaining two.

When we first meet Oichi during a stormy night, she’s a little child desperately looking for her mother who has taken off with a man and abandoned her. A lightning strikes the tree she takes shelter under and knocks her unconscious; when she wakes up she discovers that she’s blind. Fast forward a few years later, Oichi is now an adult, raised up by Yasuke, a kind old man. One day, a samurai and his thugs arrive and accordingly kill him. As they try to kill Oichi, a wondering samurai...

Hideo Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai started as a television serial before Gosha took his chance as a filmmaker and adapted his show into a prequel of sorts. The film features Tetsuro Tanba, Isamu Nagato, and Mikijiro Hira reprising their roles from the show as three samurai who band together. The film reveals their motives for doing so and casts them in varying degrees along the scale of traditional heroism. Tanba, as the story’s main character, is quick to identify the social issue that has led a group of desperate farmers to rebel against the local lord, whereas his two counterparts need a bit more persuading. All of this occurs on land controlled by a dishonest bureaucrat whom, without really thinking of whether what the farmers has done is right or wrong, does whatever he must to rid himself of the problem and revert the matter to the status quo.

Chicago – Hideo Gosha’s spectacularly entertaining 1964 feature directorial debut, “Three Outlaw Samurai,” is a samurai film for moviegoers who aren’t necessarily fans of the samurai genre. At a running time of 93 minutes, the picture is briskly paced and packed with suspenseful set-pieces, while centering its narrative on a partnership between three men who could easily be dubbed, “Good,” “Bad” and “Ugly.”

Though the film essentially functions as a prequel to Gosha’s Japanese television show of the same name, moviegoers won’t need any familiarity with the material to get immediately caught up in the action. Tadashi Sakai’s in-your-face cinematography often slants to a diagonal angle while closing in on the agonized faces of foes as they fight to the death. When the sword meets flesh, Gosha doesn’t spare the audience of the blood that follows.

Blu-ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Tetsurô Tamba, a veteran actor memorably featured in Masaki Kobayashi’s classic,...

Three Outlaw Samurai Directed by Hideo Gosha Written by Kelichi Abe, Eizaburo Shiba, and Hideo Gosha Starring Tetsuro Tamba, Isamu Nagato, Mikijiro Hira, and Mikyuki Kuwano Hideo Gosha's 'Three Outlaw Samurai' is a competently told samurai story that never really reaches levels of brilliance, but manages to remain consistently intriguing and entertaining. Three samurais become caught up in a microscopic class-war uprising that plays out as part siege film and part revenge film. The film begins as a group of peasant men take the magistrate's daughter hostage in an attempt to force a change in the treatment of local farmers. One of the men has written A wandering Ronin named Sakon Shiba (Tetsuro Tamba) happens upon the disturbance and decides to bunk within the hut of the peasants, curious to see what transpires. The magistrate hires his own samurai to resolve the issue, only to find one of the two,...