STAR WARS EPISODE VII Samurai Kylo Ren, Bandai Meisho MovieRealization

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Another word that is Japanese-esque is the name of Luke’s master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi, of course, means sash or belt, while ken could mean sword. Wan means bay, but that may be stretching it. However, what is not a stretch is to say that Lucas was going for a Japanese feel in Star Wars, if not actual words. That’s not to say there isn’t real Japanese in Star Wars. For example, Yoda is a common surname in Japanese. Translator Hiroko Yoda has written about having trouble signing up for Facebook using her real name. More on this movie than others, I did more drawings,” Snyder revealed, explaining that he’d produced somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 pieces of art for the franchise over the span of four or five months. Control is the theme of Snyder’s career. “I can’t help myself,” he admitted. “I was always inspired by movies like Brazil. There’s a great history of director’s cuts. It’s like another movie to discover. There’s this other tug, rabbit holes, it’s amazing. For me, with my drawings, there ends up being a lot of that to tell a deeper-dive story. With director’s cuts I’ve done in the past, in a vacuum, it’s how the movie would exist. It’s part of my relationship with fans.” After DC’s separation from Snyder, the company flailed through different philosophical approaches to its cinematic universe, alternately promising a more cohesive MCU-style single storyline and, with the success of 2019’s Joker, more stand-alone movies taking place in their own universes. Meanwhile, Star Wars movies kept failing either at the box office or with critics and fans. The time seems ripe for more movies that don’t come with the weight of all that IP — like The Creator, an upcoming original sci-fi movie from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards. Blink and you might confuse frames from The Creator trailer for those in a galaxy far, far away. Nobody knows who he is or where he is from,” adds Shirasaki. “He doesn’t talk about himself. The only one who knows his true identity is his droid and it doesn’t speak, either. As viewers, we are only given the same limited amount of information about the protagonist that is given to the other characters of this short.”

Combine the explosive zeitgeist that is Star Wars with the craftsmanship of Bandai and you end up with the stunning Meisho Movie Realization action figure line, which transforms characters into warriors from feudal-era Japan. While we’ve seen the likes of Darth Vader, C-3PO, and Kylo Ren in the acclaimed collectible series, the Disney+ breakout show joins the ranks with the latest Ronin Mandalorian figure. Complete with rifle, blaster, and (of course) katana sword accessories, this impressive 6.7-inch collector’s figure features weathering and a first-ever cloth cape -- perfect for a mud-caked brawl with a mudhorn. While the droids are the clearest link between the two films, the video also explores other narrative similarities, like the general having to battle a former friend who becomes badly scarred (Obi-Wan and Anakin/Darth Vader) and that former friend getting redemption by helping the heroes at the end (Darth Vader/Anakin). Jidaigeki and samurai

The war-torn general, of course, is analogous to Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi with the princess a clear influence for Lucas’ Princess Leia. If I ended up having to make a few more [ Rebel Moons], I’d be fine with that,” he said. Whether he gets there will solidify the story of Snyder’s career, and could help resolve where Hollywood — and epic-scale space opera that isn’t full of droids and Wookiees — stands in this new age. I love that Visions as a whole is a grand recursive experiment. A fairy tale of a fairy tale. A myth built upon modern mythology,” Candon says. “Also, I think that sometimes I was funny!” David Edmundson (Digital Marketing Director at Bluefin, which distributes Tamashii Nations products worldwide) tells Inverse the helmets are a key part of the figurines' appeal to collectors. In The Rise of Skywalker , we finally learn for certain that Kylo Ren would have made a lousy Sith. He probably would have made a pretty terrible samurai too, if his mended helmet is any indication.

It’s no secret that George Lucas was a big fan of Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. So much has been said about the connection between Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress and Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope. Because so many Japanese collectibles are different than anything else in the world and limited in production – most are not licensed for sale anywhere but Japan – they attract collectors looking for the unusual," Sansweet elaborated.

What it inspired: The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Perhaps the film that Akira Kurosawa is best known for is 1954’s Seven Samurai-a film that is probably the first thing that springs to mind when people hear the word “samurai”. Seven Samurai centers on a village that hires a group of seven samurai to protect them from a horde of incoming bandits. The film popularized the “assembling a team” sequence that has become a staple of other ensemble films such as its western counterpart The Magnificent Seven and even animated fare like A Bug’s Life. Star Wars would use Seven Samurai as an influence for a number of projects, including episodes of The Mandalorian and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The Sith rebellion failed, succumbing to infighting and betrayal, and the once rival lords unified to create an Empire...but even an Empire at peace is not free from violence. I decided that would be a nice way to tell the Star Wars story. Take the two lowliest characters, as Kurosawa did, and tell the story from their point of view. Which, in the Star Wars case, is the two droids, and that was the strongest influence,” Lucas said. Under the impression that Star Wars would be a children’s film, Mifune reportedly turned down the role because he was afraid the franchise might cheapen the image of samurai culture. Mifune’s daughter claims that Lucas then offered the much-loved Japanese actor the role of Darth Vader (a part now synonymous with the voice of James Earl Jones), but that he declined this too. Toshiro Mifune If you thought that Star Wars overkill was bad in the UK and the USA, just take a look at its popularity in Japan. Perhaps it’s the echoes of Japanese traditional culture, or perhaps it’s the kawaii potential of ewoks, wookies, and even the much maligned Jar Jar Binks – but whatever the reason, the Force is undeniably strong in Japan.

Specifically, Star Wars has been heavily influenced by Japanese culture, especially samurai history and other iconography of the feudal Edo period that lasted from the early 17th century through the mid-19th century. During this period, the country was ruled chiefly by a shogun, or “supreme military leader” that presided over classes of samurai, artisans, merchants and farmers.In some ways, Star Wars is a jidaigeki film because of its samurai-adjacent Jedi warriors. Like samurai, Jedi were chiefly peacekeepers but also served as a protective military force during certain periods in history. And like their real-life historic counterparts, the Jedi wielded specially-crafted swords and held dear a code of honor that emphasized discipline, morality and compassion.