Rating: 
Summary: Musashi's Soul has been Polished
Review: This is the final movie of the Samurai Trilogy. In this movie Mushashi has polished his soul and honed his skill to the point of serenity. This, possibly his most famous duel with Sasaki Kojiro (Ganryu) in which he has given up fighting with steel swords. Although this movie is not as "action-packed" it goes far deeper into the psyche of the Samurai Way. This movie is so compelling because of the complex character development, I really felt involved. I recomend seeing all three of these movies in order at least once for continuity, but all of them stand alone well including this one!
Rating: 
Summary: a good conclusion to a trilogy
Review: This review is for the Criterion collection edition of the film. As all films in the trilogy, they are good but come with almost no bonus material for DVD. The only have the essays in the accompanying jackets and the the theatrical trailers. The film itself has less action than the second film with only 2 major sequences. The scene of bandidts pillaging a town and the climatic duel scene at the end of the film. This film also has an excellent scene where Musashi uses his chopsticks to catch flies in midair. This scene appears to be the inspiration for a very similar scene in the first Karate Kid film. Overall the films were good but not great.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent film, bad transfer
Review: While I agree with the other reviewers that the culmination of Inagaki's Samurai trilogy is a wonderful film, I feel that this DVD can't truly be rated at five stars. The reason for this is that the transfer on the disc (and the other two in the series) simply doesn't do justice to the film's beautiful cinematography. The colors are muted in most scenes, often shift from scene to scene, and the film itself is frequently scratched or pitted. However, it's doubtful that these fantastic films will receive a better transfer any time in the near future, so be sure to see them, but be warned that the transfer is sub-par (although it's certainly watchable).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent film, bad transfer
Review: While I agree with the other reviewers that the culmination of Inagaki's Samurai trilogy is a wonderful film, I feel that this DVD can't truly be rated at five stars. The reason for this is that the transfer on the disc (and the other two in the series) simply doesn't do justice to the film's beautiful cinematography. The colors are muted in most scenes, often shift from scene to scene, and the film itself is frequently scratched or pitted. However, it's doubtful that these fantastic films will receive a better transfer any time in the near future, so be sure to see them, but be warned that the transfer is sub-par (although it's certainly watchable).
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