Death of a Tea Master / Sen no Rikyu: Honkakubo ibun (1989)

Among the many mysteries of Japanese culture, the tea ceremony remains arguably the least comprehensible to outsiders. Though similar rituals began in China and continue to be observed in some form in China and Korea, the Japanese seem to have taken it to an extreme, converting the brewing and drinking of a cup of tea …

One-Eyed, One-Armed Swordsman / Tange Sazen: Zankoku no kawa (1963)

In 1962, Ryutaro Otomo made the last of his popular Tange Sazen films, but it was hardly the last screen appearance of the character. In 1963, Shochiku decided to try a new version with Tetsuro Tanba. Reflecting some of the sixties zeitgeist that was spreading throughout the chanbara as a whole, Zankoku no kawa is …

Swords of Vengeance / The Fall of Ako Castle / Ako-jo danzetsu (1978)

There have been so many Chushingura movies that it is very difficult to keep them apart in your mind, and equally tempting not to add another to the list of viewings of the all-too-familiar story. However, the name of Kinji Fukasaku on the credits finally persuaded me to watch Fall of Ako Castle, which turns …

Yagyu Clan Conspiracy / Shogun’s Samurai/ Yagyu ichizoku no inbô (1978)

After 15 years of modern-dress yakuza related movies, in 1978 Kinji Fukasaku suddenly turned to Japanese historical dramas, with a version of the Chusingura story and Yagyu Clan Conspiracy. The brutal realism and kinetic energy of his yakuza films had revived and redirected an entire genre, but Yagyu Conspiracy looks like the work of a …

Assassination of Ryoma / Ryoma Ansatsu (1974)

Sometimes you come across a really fine movie that you are still not sure how to go about recommending it to others. Such is The Assassination of Ryoma, a reconstruction of the last three days of Ryoma Sakamoto. Part of this hesitation comes from the subject itself. Sakamoto is one of the great heroes of …

Musashi Miyamoto (1973)

The story of Musashi Miyamoto has been one of the most popular subjects of Japanese film-making, with versions as early as 1908 and as late as 2019. Since Eiji Yoshikawa’s popular serial/novel appeared in 1935-39, however, almost all film versions have used that as their source material. As Yoshikawa’s original was about 4000 pages, it …

Bakumatsu (1970)

Though he was a low-level samurai from the relatively small Tosa clan, Ryoma Sakamoto became one of the most influential figures in the fall of the Shogunate. He has figured in the background of a number of the historical movies of the sixties, but Bakumatsu is the first full treatment of his life, at least …

Portrait of Hell / Jigokuhen (1969)

One of my most frequent commenters mentioned that he had been overwhelmed as a student when he saw Portrait of Hell. I had last seen it about 30 years ago on VHS and had only vaguely remembered it, but his comments are always valuable, so I hunted up a DVD. Am I glad I did! …

Shinsengumi: Assassins of Honor / Shinsengumi (1969)

Throughout the 1960s, the decade after the Americans arrived became a popular topic in Japanese historical movies, as we have seen in numerous earlier posts on this blog. That interest came to some kind of peak in 1969, with Toshiro Mifune’s production of Shisengumi, in which he portrayed the group’s most significant and charismatic leader, …

Incident at Blood Pass / Ambush / Machibuse (1970)

A man walks down a road (camera behind of course because this is a Japanese movie), slightly atilt in his posture, and we think we’ve seen that man before. Then he shrugs a shoulder and we know it is Toshiro Mifune, back as the ronin with no name. He soon is given an actual job …