Akira Kurosawa: Every Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Based on the classic Japanese play Kanjinchō, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail is Kurosawa's shortest film at only sixty minutes, but even so it feels decidedly longer than it actually is.

The story of six samurai who travel through a war-torn Japan disguised as virtuous monks, the period drama is technically Kurosawa's first samurai picture, and was made on a ridiculously tight budget due to the war's effects on the cinema industry.

Unfortunately, the tight budget shows, and though there are some fun sequences in the film's second half, it's never able to overcome its messy tone inconsistencies and forgettable drama.