Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencing school, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade. Ryunosuke accepts her offer, but kills her husband in the match. Over time, Ryunosuke is pursued by the brother of the man he killed.
Tatsuya Nakadai (Harakiri, Yojimbo) stars in this dark samurai film in a role that's somewhat rare in this genre; a creepy, murderous yet calm man who've lost all compassion for his fellow humans. Nakadai gives a composed portrayal of this psychopath but we still feel the raw intensity in him, and his large piercing eyes makes one hell of a first impression. Toshiro Mifune joins in on the action further into the film (in a beautiful show-off fight scene) but his Yojimbo co-star Nakadai is the who steals the show. It all erupts in of the best sword fights of the jidaigeki genre.
It all ends abruptly, and the reason is that there was supposed to be two sequels but they were scrapped, but it all still amounts to a fantastic film nonetheless. I've also heard that the film studio pulled the plug because the sequel would be too violent, and that makes it much more frustrating.
Genre: Action/Drama
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