, also commonly spelled "
chambara", meaning "sword fighting" movies, denotes the
Japanese genre called
samurai cinema in English, and is roughly equivalent to western
cowboy and
swashbuckler films.
Chanbara is a sub-category of
jidaigeki, which equates to
period drama.
Jidaigeki may refer to a story set in an historical period, though not necessarily dealing with a samurai character or depicting swordplay.