There is no need to limit this question to Japan.

LOL JAPAN IS SO CRAZY THEY LIKE PANTIES

Stop talking about Japan. It's old.

Luckily, there are plenty of other great samurai flicks from the era. Criterion has released the best 60's Japanese movies on DVD with great transfers and sound. Check out Sword of the Beast, Kill!, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Hidden Fortress, and many others.

Still, Sword of Doom is one of my all time favorites. Insane body count. Definitely worth watching!

There are still some samurai flicks coming out. Twillight Samurai is a good one that came out not too long ago. There's that Zatochi remake as well. They just don't come out in such volume anymore, like Westerns.

I've watched the actual movie, Kwaidan, which was great but I haven't seen much else in j-horror.

Not really into the really gory stuff. J-horror implies that, kwaidan more the traditional, darkly ambient folktale tradition which the movie Kwaidan embodies perfectly. There are TONS of them, and some of them are breathtakingly beautiful and practically unknown outside of Japan.

Baleen, could you recommend a short viewing list?

I think the implied kidney incisions were horrifying enough.

I too would love a list of your suggestions for more of this.

Yeah, that was a poor choice of words on my part. I've got Onibaba sitting around which I've been meaning to watch but I don't have much else experience in that genre.

He just bravely rates things now and again, as far as I can tell.