Goyokin (1969)

I don't know anything verifiable about this topic, but my take on Samurai films is as follows:
1) the genre needs to be taken in a strict sense; viz., action films where the plot turns on sword-fighting
2) thus, not Rashomon, but certainly The Hidden Fortress.
3) I'm in no position to draw a timeline here, but the early films we have to associate with the genre tend to star Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai, the Samurai Trilogy, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, Chushingura, Yojimbo, Sanjuro).
4) so, what *looks like* a "classic" period would be 1954-1962
5) afterwards, one has the highly critical samurai films: Samurai Rebellion, Harakiri, etc. in which loyalty and the samurai code are shown as deeply flawed.
6) By the end of the 1960s, this genre appears to have died out, and the notable 1970s Samurai films are the trashy and mega-violent Lone Wolf and Cub films (which are wonderful but have nothing to do with the earlier era).

Goyokin is truly a film at the end of its genre's possibilities. Big, expensive-looking, shot in color, and overlong, the film is truly "decadent" in every sense. The plot is VERY straight-forward, the character development is... not there, and the end is *about* the genre's inability-to-continue (historically, the point where samurais face their demise). In this sense, it is analogous to the later John Wayne films (The Shootist) or the Wild Bunch.

There are some beautiful shots, and the final battle is a real highlight, topped only by the weird refusal-to-end that takes up the last 10 minutes. But there are no interesting situations to remember, and the movie's strategy is akin to that of Napoleon's 1813 battles: bulk relying on what has worked before, but lazily and to little effect.