For some strange reason I partially remember seeing a samurai film about 20 years, but I can't recall its name.
The plot was about a handful of samurais who was protecting a child (?future emperor?) from some bad guys. The child was going to be transported from destination X to destination Y without being killed by the overwhelming numbers of enemies. Each time the enemy got close to the child, one or two of the samurais would engage the enemy to buy the others some time. The samurais of course all died violently deaths. I remember bits and pieces of one fighting scene: The enemy was approaching on horseback, so one or two samurais stayed behind to plan an ambush. They cut down some bamboos and placed them on the road, so that when the enemy stepped on them their horses would slip and fall. Then there was katakana (?bamboo?) to katakana (?bamboo?) combat and one of the samurais got a really big bamboo poked in his eye. That just seemed to make him angry and fight even better, but in the end he died his honourably and violently death.

I'm somewhat sure it isn't shichinin no samurai. Does anyone have an idea of the film it could have been?