Toho Company Ltd.
Director: Akira Kurasawa
IMDB Link
Even if you claim not to, you have seen this movie before. Probably more than once. It's been remade at least seven times, most famously as Per un pugno di dollari with Clint Eastwood, and Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis. It isn't the original, though, not by any means. That claim to fame goes to the book Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.

I'll recap the plot, just in case you've been living in a box for the last century or so. This Guy (detective/ronin/gunslinger/gangster) goes to this Place (town/village/village/town) and there are these two Groups (gangs/clans/families/gangs) who are contesting the Place. He plays both Groups off each other, looking very bad-ass in the process. Lots of people die. The Guy gets beat up. He ends up not being as amoral as we thought and he saves this girl who got treated poorly by a member of one of the Groups. You probably don't ever get to know the Guy's name.

Now, why is this movie cooler than the other ones? Several reasons:

• First, and most obviously, it has samurai, so there are sword fights. Sword fights are very bad-ass. This one also has a gun. The other movies have lots of guns, but not a single sword. Therefore this movie wins, hands down.
• It was directed by Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa is the coolest thing about Japan. He sneers at George Lucas. Even though he's dead, he still sneers. George Lucas rips Kurosawa off in every movie he has ever made, but Kurosawa out-directs Georgie from beyond the grave. Even in his lamest movie, which is one he made during WWII about brave Japanese women making bomb sights to be used to kill Americans.
• It stars Toshiro Mifune, who is like a Japanese synthesis of Russell Crowe, Errol Flynn and Cary Grant. Now that is bad-ass.
• There's the weird Japanese guy who is like seven feet tall and tries to his people with a hammer. He's ugly and gets killed with a sword.
• It's a lot funnier than all of the remakes. Everyone who plays the Guy is just copying Mifune. You will realize this after you see it for yourself.

So, just watch the damned movie. You'll thank me for it.