The Secret of the Urn (1966)
"Tange Sazen: Hien iaigiri" (original title)

Loyal samurai Samanosuke is attacked, mutilated, and left for dead while carrying out a mission for his clan. He recovers but has lost an eye and an arm. Taking a new identity as Tange ... See full summary »

Director:

Hideo Gosha

Writers:

Hideo Gosha, Kei Tasaka

Stars:

Bin Amatsu, Keiko Awaji, Takuya Fujioka

Cast

Credited cast:
Bin Amatsu
Keiko Awaji	...	Fuji
Takuya Fujioka
Kiyoshi Hitomi
Minoru Hodaka
Wakaba Irie
Yoshinobu Kaneko
Seizaburô Kawazu
Isao Kimura	...	Yagyu Genzaburo
Ichitarô Kuni
Kinji Nakamura
Kinnosuke Nakamura	...	Samanosuke / Tange Sazen
Shinnosuke Ogata
Junkichi Orimoto
Kyôichi Satô

Storyline

Loyal samurai Samanosuke is attacked, mutilated, and left for dead while carrying out a mission for his clan. He recovers but has lost an eye and an arm. Taking a new identity as Tange Sazen, he searches for a stolen urn which has hidden significance to his clan. But Tange Sazen has his own reasons for seeking the urn.

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Plot Keywords:

remake

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

25 May 1966 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Samourai sans honneur

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toei Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Remake of Tange Sazen yowa: Hyakuman ryo no tsubo (1935)

User Reviews

Merely average; see only if you're a fan.

I wanted to like this one, but for a number of reasons, I just couldn't get into it. First of all, I'm not a big fan of the actor playing the hero -- perhaps its that he's missing an eye (at least, the character is), but he really doesn't put in a compelling performance, which is rare for a Gosha protagonist. The plot and theme are typical Gosha (lower-ranked samurai gets screwed by his conniving lord, and is now out for justice of his own devise), but it all feels a little half-hearted. Though there are some good examples of Gosha's camera work, he also seems to be trying a bit too hard with some shots, and not hard enough with others.

Finally, for an adventure/revenge story, this one just doesn't have a lot of "drive" to it. I kept waiting for the suspense to kick in, but it never did. I can't say that you should avoid this one, but I certainly can't recommend it to anyone who isn't already a fan of Gosha's work. If you want to see a couple of _great_ examples of Gosha's earlier B&W movies, see "Sanbiki no samurai" (his first movie) or "Kedamono no ken" (his second). If you're just looking for an introduction to Gosha (or chamabara movies), I'd start with Goyokin.