Miyamoto Musashi: Nitôryû kaigen

No. I only gave this absurd film a 3 due to its fine cinema-photography. The story takes the legendary idea of master swordsman Myamoto Musashi and splits it into two different people, both named Musashi and from that silly premise the film gets worse in every frame. It sort of mimics the well-known story of the more historic figure, but divides it between two personalities, one young, one old. The actor playing the older one is possible the ugliest Japanese actor ever to appear in a film. The sword scenes are flimsy and poorly executed. The young Musashi goes on to star in the "Sleepy Eyes" series and he is in fact quite a good actor, but his budding talent is wasted in this farce. the plots are simple enough...duels between swordsmen for no reason other than fame. Followed by mindless revenge plots by their friends, that go nowhere and disappear. I love Japanese Samurai films, but this is pure junk. What the writer had in mind is unknown, as the film is an absolute insult to the actual legend of the magnificent Myamoto Musashi and otherwise makes the idea of telling a great story into a lampoon of itself, played with a straight face. Perhaps the poorest and lamest of the many awesome Samurai films that came out in the 1960s.