Japan Synopsis
大殺陣
A cynical samurai is left as the sole survivor to fulfill a plot to assassinate the puppet of a villain intent on usurping the shogunate in the 17th century. A Shogunate Elder connives to rule Japan by making his puppet, the Shogun's brother Tsunashige, the next Shogun. The best strategist in Japan, Yamaga, leads a plot to stop the Elder, but his cabal is betrayed and most of the conspirators are captured and tortured.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Great Duel. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Toei Company
Action + Drama in Japan
444 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Action and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Great Duel itself).
The 1963–1965 Japan Window
The Great Duel holds position #13 of 61 Japan films in the 1963–1965 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1960s in Japan, 202 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Great Duel premiered alongside 23 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 23 other Japan films in 1964.
The 196th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
12 audience reviews — more than 16% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 21th percentile among Japan films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Great Duel, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- edo period · 19
- assassination · 17
- chanbara · 14
- bushi · 9
- japan · 454
- samurai · 128
- jidaigeki · 61
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,514 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (67th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.5 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Action productions specifically: #643 of 1,714 (top 38%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Toei Company, Toei Studios Kyoto |
| Runtime | 1h 58m |
| Release Date | June 3, 1964 |
| IMDb | tt0186939 |