Samurai Films (11 page)

Ryunosuke, a swordsman renowned for his skill, is begged to let his opponent win in an upcoming fencing match by the man’s wife, Ohama. Ohama secures Ryunosuke’s promise to spare her husband by sleeping with him. Ryunosuke, however, wins the match, and kills his opponent in doing so. Forced to leave the school, Ryunosuke takes Ohama with him for now her family have rejected her. Ryunosuke falls in with a group of treacherous samurai and commits more murders in his thirst for power. But he cannot escape the consequences of his actions; some relatives of his victims are stalking him: a skilled young samurai and a thief armed with a revolver. Driven mad by visions of people he has murdered, Ryunosuke goes on a rampage through an inn, and the film ends suddenly with him badly wounded and surrounded by hostile samurai.

Sword of Doom
is hailed by many samurai film fans as one of the greatest examples of the genre, and with outstanding direction by Kihachi Okamoto, and a classic performance by Tatsuya Nakadai, this praise is well earned.

Violent and sombre in tone, Ryunosuke kills often, and usually only to indulge his sadistic personality. He’s a largely unsympathetic central character, which sets the film apart from most others in the samurai genre.

In arguably his greatest role, Tatsuya Nakadai’s performance is highly evocative; his mixture of cold, uncaring stares and the occasional manic expression perfectly conveys Ryunosuke’s sociopath tendencies. During his fight scenes, Ryunosuke is methodical, coldly cutting down his enemies, on occasion showing joy as he does so. Nakadai conveys this well and to disturbing effect.

Tatsuya Nakadai as Ryunosuke.
Sword of Doom
directed by Kihachi Okamoto and produced by Sanezumi Fujimoto, Kaneharu Minamizato and Masayuki Sato for Toho Studios.

 

Okamoto’s direction surpasses even his own high standards. The battles are swiftly paced, and Okamoto holds nothing back in his depiction of graphic violence. Ryunosuke’s battle on a forest path with some disgruntled samurai is a good example of Okamoto’s skill at action scenes. Shots from a variety of different angles show Ryunosuke methodically working through his enemies, cutting them down one at a time. When there are no more enemies left, he stops moving and we see a close-up of his profile, a sadistic smile creeping onto his lips. A classic shot of the forest path, strewn with bodies, follows and we see Ryunosuke, standing motionless in the distance. In a later scene, Okamoto again makes use of snow, as he did in
Samurai Assassin
. When Toranosuke, a skilled samurai sternly played by Toshiro Mifune, is confronted by a violent group of samurai conspirators, he is forced to fight them on a snow-covered road. In a particularly violent moment, he cuts one of his enemies’ hands off, which we see fall to the ground, and stain the snow.

Ryunosuke (Tatsuya Nakadai) follows the path of cruelty.
Sword of Doom
directed by Kihachi Okamoto and produced by Sanezumi Fujimoto, Kaneharu Minamizato and Masayuki Sato for Toho Studios.

 

The scenes in which Ryunosuke goes on a rampage through an inn are among the best ever shot in a samurai film. Believing the ghosts of those he has harmed are haunting him, he sees their looming, shadowy forms on the paper walls surrounding him, and hears them mocking him. Striking at these phantoms, Ryunosuke completely destroys the room. As he slashes through each wall, there is a sharp cry of pain, as if Ryunosuke believes he is really harming these imagined enemies, but they continue to taunt him. These scenes offer a disturbing insight into Ryunosuke’s twisted mind, and lead to an incredibly violent battle scene, in which he’s confronted by the samurai conspirators he is supposed to be a member of.

While Ryunosuke himself is an unsympathetic character, the victims of his violent actions form an emotional connection with the audience. We follow the fortunes of several such characters. Particularly tragic is Ohama, who, having been tricked into sleeping with Ryunosuke, then widowed by him, has to follow him when no one else will accept her. She is tied even closer to him when she bears his child. Faced with Ryunosuke’s cruelty, Michiyo Aratama is particularly good at eliciting our sympathy for Ohama.

Based on the early chapters of a long, serialised novel, Shinobu Hashimoto’s script contains several clever devices. Skilful use of metaphor is woven into both the plot and the dialogue; Ryunosuke uses a cruel form of swordplay where he lures his victims in with a series of feints before delivering a single sudden and devastating blow. His teacher warns him of the dangers of using such a nasty form; a cruel sword leads to a cruel heart. This idea resonates throughout the plot, and forms the core message of Okamoto’s film.

The final scenes of Sword of Doom are frighteningly violent, when Ryunosuke is ultimately driven mad by his cruel deeds, and goes on a violent rampage. The film’s ending is appropriately abrupt and unpredictable.

Quite different to most samurai films,
Sword
of
Doom
is an entertaining examination of the consequences of cruelty for both the monster and his victims. With Kihachi Okamoto’s talented direction, and a captivating performance by Tatsuya Nakadai, this is a prime example of the high quality of 1960s samurai cinema.

When one of his concubines displeases him, Masakata, daimyo of the Aizu clan, orders that she marry Yogoro, the son of Isaburo, one of his samurai. Isaburo initially refuses, wanting Yogoro to avoid marrying for political convenience, as he did. However, Yogoro convinces his father that the marriage is for the best, and, surprisingly, he and his new wife, Ichi, fall in love and have a child, Tomi. This brings great delight to Isaburo, who till then had been miserable and constantly berated by his nasty wife, Suga. When Masakata’s immediate heir dies unexpectedly, his child with Ichi, Kikuchiyo, becomes the new heir, and Masakata demands that Ichi be returned to him. Isaburo and Yogoro refuse, but Suga and Bunzo, Isaburo’s other son, trick Ichi into returning to the castle, where she is held prisoner. Isaburo is ready to give up, but his friend Tatewaki, a border guard, convinces him not to. Masakata’s chamberlain has Kiku, the wife of a low-ranking samurai, work for Isaburo as a wet nurse so that Tomi doesn’t starve. Yogoro presents a petition for the return of Ichi, threatening to reveal Masakata’s shameful behaviour to the rest of Japan. Masakata sends his steward, who arrives at Isaburo’s house with Ichi, hoping to force them all to declare they are no longer related. Both men refuse, and Ichi responds by seizing a spear and killing herself. The steward’s men attack, and kill Yogoro. Isaburo kills both the steward and his men, and heads for Edo with Tomi, hoping to tell the Shogunate of Masakata’s shameful actions. Tatewaki blocks Isaburo’s progress across the border, and the two agree to a duel, which Isaburo wins. In a final stand, Isaburo is killed by a large group of Masakata’s men. Kiku rescues Tomi, adopting her as her own.

Samurai
Rebellion
is another moving film directed by Masaki Kobayashi, the talented filmmaker responsible for
Hara-kiri
. As in
Hara-kiri
, Kobayashi chooses compelling subject matter which elicits an emotional response from his audience.

Like
Hara-kiri
,
Samurai Rebellion
tells a story of a man who refuses to adhere to the samurai code of unquestioning obedience, when he and his family are treated in an unjust and disgraceful way by his supposedly honourable superiors. Isaburo’s grievances are utterly justified, having had a beloved daughter-in-law snatched away for purely political reasons. Though not as damning of the samurai code as
Hara-kiri
, this film does suggest that family is far more important than any code. Like Hanshiro in
Hara-kiri
, Isaburo is ready to sacrifice all for his family.

Isaburo makes for a very likeable, convincing character. Toshiro Mifune offers another great performance as a man who has given way on so many other matters, but refuses to jeopardise the happiness of the people who are most important in his life. Isaburo takes great delight in the happiness his son has found in married life (something he was never able to achieve), which Mifune conveys most movingly. He convincingly portrays Isaburo’s transition from the unhappy man we meet at the beginning of the film into a much warmer character. His conviction adds weight to later scenes, when the family is in peril.

Samurai Rebellion
also contains a memorable performance from the great Tatsuya Nakadai who is both likeable and disturbing as Tatewaki. Carefully limiting his expressions, vocally and facially, Nakadai is a man who carefully considers his actions. He only lets emotion creep into his performance in a few scenes, which consequently have great impact. In many ways Tatewaki is the opposite of Isaburo; where Mifune’s character is emotional and expressive, Nakadai’s isn’t. It’s a juxtaposition that works well, and results in some entertaining scenes between the two.

As in
Hara-kiri
, Kobayashi stages some frantic battle scenes. The duel between Isaburo and Tatewaki is a tense and unpredictable exchange of blows; by this point in their careers Mifune and Nakadai were both very experienced at swordplay. The scenes in which Isaburo battles the Aizu clan samurai are also very well constructed; Isaburo grows progressively more fatigued and wounded as he battles on; each time we think he has defeated his enemies, more appear from the thick undergrowth surrounding him, accompanied by the sound of gunshots.

Containing a compelling and moving story and perhaps the best ever pairing of stars Mifune and Nakadai,
Samurai Rebellion
is an indisputable classic of the samurai film genre.

A ronin, Hanji, and a yakuza, Genta, meet in an all but deserted town. There they become embroiled in the efforts of a group of seven samurai to wipe out the corruption from their clan. As it turns out, Hanji is in fact a peasant who hopes to become a samurai, and Genta is a ronin, having rejected samurai life by choice, and now travelling in disguise. The seven samurai become trapped in a small building, surrounded by their enemies. Hanji falls in with a group of ronin working for the conspirators, promised samurai status if they succeed in dislodging the seven honest samurai. The clan figure behind the corruption actually plans to kill them all, hoping to remove all evidence of his deeds. Genta reveals this plot to Hanji, who is forced to reconsider his aspirations to join the world of the samurai. Through Genta’s machinations the conspirators are defeated, and Hanji decides that the samurai life is not for him after all.