Samurai (1965/I)

Director:

Kihachi Okamoto

Writers:

Jiromasa Gunji (story)
Shinobu Hashimoto (writer)

Release Date:

5 March 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History

Plot:

February 17 to March 3, 1860, inside Edo castle. A group of assassins wait by Sakurada Gate to kill the lord of the House of Ii...

Plot Keywords:

Samurai | Japan | 1860s | Sword Fight | Jidai Geki

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Tsuruchiyo Niiro
Keiju Kobayashi	...	Einosuke Kurihara
Michiyo Aratama	...	Okiku / Kukuhime
Yûnosuke Itô	...	Hoshino Kenmotsu
Eijirô Tôno	...	Seigoro Kisoya
Tatsuyoshi Ehara	...	Ichigoro Hayama
Tadao Nakamaru	...	Shigezo Inada
Shiro Otsude	...	Kaname Kojima
Yoshio Inaba	...	Keijiro Sumita
Akihiko Hirata	...	Sohei Masui
Eisei Amamoto	...	Matazaburo Hagiwara (as Hideyo Amamoto)
Ikio Sawamura	...	Tatsukichi Bisenya
Chotaro Togin	...	Seiichi Morikawa
Yasuzo Ogawa	...	Ronin
Masanari Nihei	...	Ronin

Also Known As:

Samurai Assassin

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M

Company:

Mifune Productions Co. Ltd.

Okamoto comes close but ultimately misses greatness with Samurai Assassin...

Samurai Assassin is a tricky film. It tries to balance neatly between the chambara and jidai-geki. As a jidai-geki it falls close to Masaki Kobayashi's amazing masterpieces Seppuku and Samurai Rebellion in its resemblance of an ancient Greek tragedy filled with tragic irony and a sense of inescepable doom. On the chambara front it takes a while to deliver but when it does, it's all guns blazing; the final fight in the snow ranks as one of the greatest battle sequences in 60's samurai cinema.

What hampers Samurai Assassin is both the very convoluted plot (even by jidai-geki standards) and the narration that should have been skipped altogether (especially in the ending). The plot although well constructed may suffer under close scrutiny. Of course nothing a little suspension of disbelief can't solve. Still, it devotes too much time and detail to subplots and flashbacks that ultimately detract from its goal: building momentum for the final confrontation (both physical and emotional). Tsuruchiyo's backstory for example is spread over 30 minutes and while it gives a solid foundation to the character, you can't help but wonder what it has to do with the first half hour. It all clicks together at some point but it would have benefited immensely from tighter plotting (20 could have been clipped). Less detail, narration and names-dropping, more visualization.

No matter. Samurai Assassin is still a decent film with some memorable scenes. It starts to pick up steam after the 70 minute mark and finishes on a spectacular note. The final battle in the snow is a marvel to look at and features some top notch swordfighting, with Toshiro Mifune simply owning every frame with his impeccable physical skills. It's a very bleak and ironic ending however; there's no valliance or social status to be gained for Mifune's character. I don't want to spoil it any further cos it's easily the best part of the movie.

Okamoto, a great chambara director of the 60's, was well on his way to bigger and better things. Just one year later, Sword of Doom would go on to become one of the best Japanese movies of all time. Three years later, the thoroughly enjoyable Kiru! would add some tongue-in-cheek spirit to Okamoto's often nihilistic style. Still, Samurai Assassin is a welcome addition to his ouevre that might not be excellent and thus not a good entry point to both Okamoto and the jidai-geki but it's recommended to genre fans.