Tange Sazen: Hien iaigiri

I wanted to add my voice as a counter opinion to the couple of reviews here that don't like this film very much. I've seen 7 Gosha films, and this is my third favourite after the superb "Sword of the Beast" and the very good "Three Outlaw Samurai". Secret of the Urn is a great, entertaining samurai film that I think many people who like this type of film would be well pleased to see.

Sure the cliché of the wounded/disadvantaged hero is present, but I found it works perfectly fine. I certainly liked the hero. If we start bitching about film clichés, why don't we mention that aside from Yamada's more realistic recent samurai fare, the cliché of the hero sword master taking on 60 enemy swordsmen at one time and winning, is present in virtually any chanbara films (personally, I love those types of scenes). Do we discard all those films because that is trite and unrealistic?

We all see films through our own subjective filter, and what expectations we have also influence what we may make of a film. I enjoyed this film quite a bit, and think this is a very worthwhile watch for most samurai film fans.