CRUEL TALE OF BUSHIDO (Masters of Cinema) Limited Edition Blu-ray

A ground-breaking historical epic from Golden Bear-winning director Tadashi Imai

Eureka Entertainment to release CRUEL TALE OF BUSHIDO, the ambitious, multi-generational epic from Golden Bear-winning director Tadashi Imai. Presented from a breathtaking 4K restoration by Toei, the film arrives on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK and North America as part of the Masters of Cinema Series. Available from 23 March 2026, this edition is strictly limited to 2,000 copies and comes housed in an O-card slipcase with a collector’s booklet.

Best known for dramas such as Until We Meet Again and An Inlet of Muddy Water, the Japanese filmmaker Tadashi Imai was also the director of Revenge, a highly accomplished and brutal jidaigeki picture. These two sensibilities come together in the film that might just stand as Imai’s masterpiece: Cruel Tale of Bushido.

Kinnosuke Nakamura (Miyamoto Musashi) stars in multiple roles, playing seven generations of men belonging to the same family. In the modern day, salaryman Iikura is devastated by his wife’s attempted suicide. To distract himself, he begins working through his recently discovered family records. As he traces his personal history across 350 years, he discovers tale after tale of men who have suffered, debased themselves and made untold sacrifices in the name of bushido, or the moral code of the samurai.

Featuring Eijiro Tono (Seven Samurai) and Masayuki Mori (Rashomon) in supporting roles and boasting a foreboding score by the celebrated composer Toshiro Mayuzumi, Cruel Tale of Bushido won the Golden Bear Award at the 1963 Berlin Film Festival for its uncompromising deconstruction of the all-too-often romanticised concept of bushido. The Masters of Cinema Series is honoured to present the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Limited edition of 2,000 copies
• Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring new artwork by Tony Stella
• Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Japanese cinema expert Hayley Scanlon
• 1080p HD presentation from a 4K restoration by Toei
• Original Japanese mono audio
• Optional DTS-HD MA 5,1 audio
• Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
• Telling a Cruel Tale – new interview with film critic Tony Rayns
• Years of Honour – new video essay on Cruel Tale of Bushido and Japanese history by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of Japan |
• Trailer
• * All extras subject to change

PRESS

“an exceptional dramatic work with a downbeat tone and hard edge…The direction is tight, and the performances are solid” – Screen Anarchy

“A downbeat, ruthless, and sobering film…a fantastically brutal jidaigeki that still manages to shock today. Essential viewing…” – Asian Movie Pulse

“an excellent if relentlessly bleak film from a master filmmaker who deserves to be better known in the west” – DVD Talk