the 1st movie of this trilogy won the oscar for best foreign film. the trilogy is based on the real life of miyamoto musashi (in japanese, the surname precedes the given name), who was the greatest swordsman in japan (and perhaps, the world). he fought in many battles and was undefeated (and in some reports, not even wounded) in 61 duels. the trilogy was wonderfully restored by janus films and is part of the company's criterion collection, which was created to preserve the greatest films ever made. samurai II was filmed in 1955 and samurai III came out the following year.