Samurai Trilogy

The Samurai Trilogy is a film trilogy directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune as Musashi Miyamoto and Koji Tsuruta as Kojir Sasaki. The films are based on the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, about the famous duelist and author of The Book of Five Rings.

The trilogy also became an influence for future films. In Kill Bill, for example, The Bride kills ORen Ishii with exactly the same swallows tail move that Kojir Sasaki uses to try to kill Musashi Miyamoto, and the filming for this scene is almost identical as well with the same parallel run, blood splash, and unknown victor until the faces are revealed. Bill himself references the ending to Samurai III when he suggests an old school duel on the beach at sunrise.

Source: Wikipedia