Oh Boy My first post, here we go!

Honor is defined as doing something that is morally right, Samurai as a caste of warriors derive their morals from their state. You could therefore look to laws that governed said class, those laws are pretty horrible by modern standards.

Honor toward the lower classes is one such aspect I see routinely in film; not so. There were codified laws exactly how a Samurai may murder peasants.

The law of "kirisute gomen" or "permission to cut down and leave [without further ado]", was law of the Tokugawa shogunate that permited Samurai to kill any member of the lower class (anyone but doctors, midwives or other samurai) who had disrespected them. It was so common that; "Feudal lords arriving in Edo during the periods of alternative service known as Sankin Kotai, would often visit local magistrates upon their arrival in Edo, and provide them with gifts in anticipation of light sentencing for any of their entourage should such an occurrence take place."

If you think getting murdered on the spot for calling a man bun ugly is bad then get ready for the law that predates it: Tsujigiri; " a practice when a samurai after receiving a new katana or developing a new fighting style or weapon, tests its effectiveness by attacking a human opponent, usually a random defenseless passer-by, in many cases during nighttime. The practitioners themselves are also referred to as tsujigiri."

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For an individual example: In 1696 a wealthy lord named Yoshihara killed a dozen prostitutes with his Katana. There a movie called Hero of the Red Light District about it and a kabuki play too.

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Tokugawa law https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2883&context=wlr

Kirisute-gomen https://samurai-world.com/kirisute-gomen/

Tsujigiri https://edoflourishing.blogspot.com/2016/01/tsujigiri-killings.html

Yoshihara Spree Killing (no English primary source available sorry, I tired) https://wtfhistorywordpresscom.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/roadside-samurai-the-brutal-act-of-tsujigiri/amp/

Please see the different aspects of this question below:

• It is often claimed that the concept of Bushido was invented long after the time of the samurai. How were Samurai expected to conduct themselves during the Sengoku Jidai?
• In the movie Seven Samurai, a character accuses the samurai (all of them, as a caste of society) of destroying villages, raping women, and stealing from poor farmers. Samurai are usually portrayed as lawful -- is there any legitimacy to this accusation?
• Did the unification of Japan improve the living standards of the Japanese peasantry?
• Samurai and religious institutions

The cinematic representation of the samurai is largely ahistorical. See Oleg Benesch's excellent scholarship on the invention of Bushido for more info: https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198706625.001.0001/acprof-9780198706625