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Takashi Miike is a director I have been intrigued with for some time. I’ve liked all the film of his that I have seen, up to this point, even if they’ve left me perplexed sometimes. At least they got me thinking. He often works in extremes such as in the morally ambiguous, yet fascinating, ICHI THE KILLER, and the provocative unaired episode of MASTERS OF HORROR titled IMPRINT. You know you’re pushing the boundaries when a pay cable channel thinks your work is too risqué to air. So I was excited to see what he would have in store when tackling his first English language feature in the style of a spaghetti western with an Asian infusion. After what I was served I should have settled for SpaghettiOs.

A gunslinger (Hideaki Ito, THE PRINCESS BLADE) rides into the town of Yuta where two rival gangs have been waging war against each other. The leader of the red gang Kiyomori (Koichi Sato, RASEN) brought his men into town to raid the gold miners. Yoshitsune (Yusuke Iseya, CASSHERN) brought his white gang into town to steal from the red gang. The gunslinger is unwilling to take sides, but does take an interest in the Romeo & Juliet-like tragic story of Yoshitsune’s slave Shizuka (Yoshino Kimura, BLINDNESS). With his mysterious motives, the gunslinger can’t trust anyone especially the corrupt sheriff (Teruyuki Kagawa, HERO) and the raspy voiced bar owner Ruriko (Kaori Momoi, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA). Other shady characters will play roles as well, including the American gunman Ringo (Quentin Tarantino).

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Watch a Clip

This short is featured on the Animation Show Vol. 3 DVD.

Directed by Francois Caffiaux, Noel Romain, and Thomas Salas, this CG-animated student film brims with gags, creating a rare Looney Tunes-style CG film that works. A red uniformed samurai climbs the steep cliff of a very small island. From a nearby island his fellow samurai cheer him on, until a blue uniformed samurai pops up behind him and pushes him to the water below. This begins the tit for tat attempts by the two opposing forces to claim the middle island for their own.

The directing trio develops their gags well, keeping them flying at the audience and building continuing gags effectively. As the dueling clans’ leaders become increasingly angered by their inability to take the two-person wide island, the conclusion builds to an ironic comeuppance for the warmongers. One should also watch the backgrounds for some subtle jokes as well. So many times I’ve seen very cartoony-like action in CG look stilted. The reason is often that the timing and performance is off, having little to do with the technique. The filmmakers have the talent to pace their comedy, deftly varying and layering their gags. Their solid direction of the action is evident. Additionally, for a student film, the CG design work is slick. Calling this film a student film is a bit of a misnomer, because Caffiaux, Romain, and Salas establish themselves as pros with this production.

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Sasuke Sarutobi (Koji Takahashi, SANSHIRO SUGATA) is a legendary samurai of the Sanada clan who is tracking Toyotomi clan spy Takanosuke Nojiri (Kei Sato, THE SWORD OF DOOM). One day he meets the spy Mitsuaki Inamura (Rokko Toura, ZATOICHI AND THE CHESS EXPERT), who is trying to sell information to Nojiri and his master Shigeyuki Koremura (Eitaro Ozawa, SAMURAI 1: MUSASHI MIYAMOTO), which lead them to the whereabouts of leading Tokugawa spy Tatewaki Koriyama (Eiji Okada, LADY SNOWBLOOD).

Sasuke wants nothing to do with Mitsuaki’s plan because he fears that it will lead to another war, especially after he finds out that Mitsuaki has ratted out a Christian samurai named Yashiro Kobayashi (Yasunori Irikawa) in an effort to sneak by the cruel local magistrate Genba Kuni (Minoru Hodaka, MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS). While on his mission, Sasuke runs into Tokugawa assassin Sakon Takatani (Tetsuro Tamba, THE STORY OF RICKY), who wants to find Tatewaki for his own reasons. Sasuke also gets involved with Jinnai-Kazutaka Horikawa (Seiji Miyaguchi, THE SEVEN SAMURAI), an older statesmen who seems to be someone Sasuke cannot trust.

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Director Kihachi Okamoto (KILL!, ZATOICHI MEETS YOJIMBO) creates a stylish samurai tale that stands out due to its central character who would be a villain in any other film. One could compare it to other samurai films, but better comparisons would be TAXI DRIVER, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER or DAHMER.

Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai, RAN) is a sociopath. Making things worse for everyone else is that he’s the best samurai around. Our introduction to him is him cold bloodily murdering an old man (Kamatari Fujiwara, KAGEMUSHA) as he prays. Subsequently the old man’s granddaughter Omatsu (Yoko Naito, RED BEARD) is adopted by the thief Shichibei (Ko Nishimura, LADY SNOWBLOOD), who has her stay with a mean flower arranger.

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Based on Shugoro Yamamoto’s novel, PEACEFUL DAYS (which was also the basis of Kihachi Okamoto’s more complex film, KILL!), SANJURO serves as a sequel to Akira Kurasawa’s masterpiece, YOJIMBO.

A corrupt superintendent named Kikui (Masao Shimizu, HIGH & LOW) tricks a group of young samurai into believing their chamberlain Mutsuta (Yunosuke Ito, LONE WOLF AND CUB: SWORD OF VENGEANCE) is actually the corrupt one. As young leader Iori Izaka (Yuzo Kayama, THE SWORD OF DOOM) and his fellow samurai gather in a remote dwelling in the woods, a nameless ronin (Toshiro Mifune, SEVEN SAMURAI) explains to the young samurai the error of their ways and helps them avoid an ambush by the superintendent’s right hand man Hanbei Muroto (Tatsuya Nakadai, RAN). The nameless samurai helps the young samurai, who have a knack of rushing into situations before thinking them out fully, devise a way to first rescue the chamberlain’s wife (Takako Irie, GHOST CAT series) and his daughter, Chidori (Reiko Dan, RED BEARD) than later the chamberlain.

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If the Criterion Collection puts out a title on DVD, I always pay attention. I’ve hated some of them, but I never wonder why they put it out. KILL! is one of the titles that I never heard of, but now know why they found it worthy.

It’s like YOJIMBO crossed with THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY with dashes of slapstick humor that you’d find in TOM JONES. In fact, the book the film is based off of is the same Akira Kurosawa used as the basis for his YOJIMBO sequel, SANJURO. If I had any complaint with the film it would be that I lost track of the numerous characters very quickly. However, I loved the film anyway and wouldn’t know what to cut if asked.

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Split into two parts, Kenji Mizoguchi’s epic samurai picture is the most well respected film to come out of Japan during World War II. Mizoguchi is considered one of the Japan’s best filmmakers of all time. The only other film I have seen of his is UGETSU, which is amazing. THE 47 RONIN is more of a political intrigue story than an action adventure epic like those of Akira Kurasawa.

Lord Asano (Yoshizaburo Arashi) attacks and mildly wounds court officer Lord Kira after he is insulted by the bureaucrat. Because Kira is a royal butt-kisser — literally — the officials rule that Lord Asano must commit ritual suicide. Lord Asano’s loyal samurai petition for their master to be spared while the motives of Chamberlain Kuranosuke Oishi (Chojuro Kawarasaki), Asano’s second in command, are brought into question.

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This film moves at the slow pace of its central character Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada, THE LAST SAMURAI), whose co-workers refer to him as Twilight, because he never goes out with them and comes to work unwashed and with torn clothing. He is a sad widower who is raising two daughters and taking care of his senile mother.

His daughter Ito (Erina Hashiguchi, film debut) narrates the film. He learns that his friend’s sister Tomoe (Rie Miyazawa, BASARA - THE PRINCESS GOH) is divorcing her husband. They were friends as children and seem to have had a crush on each other. Why Seibei doesn’t act on his feelings is typical, but has a profound twist that you won’t expect. What no one really knows is that Seibei has trained as a samurai. Though he is the lowest rank, he is still quite skilled. In the end, Seibei is forced to confront renegade samurai Yogo (Min Tanaka), who has already killed one samurai who was sent after him.

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Takeshi “Beat” Kitano is a film legend in most parts of the world, but he is little known to the general public in the U.S. Cult fans will know him as the teacher in BATTLE ROYALE, which is an amazing film. ZATOICHI is a huge franchise in Japan with 26 films and a TV series. Actor Shintaro Katsu played the blind swordsman until his death. Kitano boils down the series to its essence and creates a pulp samurai/yakuza flick that fans of Quentin Tarantino will love.

Zatoichi (Kitano) is a blind masseur, who often finds himself in quick and deadly swordplay. He ends up fighting for the side of justice. This time around two geishas – O-Sei (Daigoro Tachibana, film debut) and O-Kinu (Yuuko Daike, JU-ON 2) are seeking revenge on the gang that slaughtered their parents when they were children. Boss Ginzo (Ittoku Kishibe, FIFTEEN) hires master swordsman Hattori Genosuke (Tadanobu Asano, ICHI THE KILLER), who only takes the job to help save his sick wife O-Shino (Yui Natsukawa, SPY SORGE). Throughout the film, Zatoichi stays with Aunt O-Ume (Michiyo Ookusu, ZATOICHI: THE BLIND SWORDSMAN’S PILGRIMAGE) and her unlucky, loaf of a brother Shinkichi (Gadarukanaru Taka, WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE), who give a good look at how the yakuza (gangster) affect the lives of the villagers.

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The Zatoichi series is hugely popular in Japan. It has spawned 27 features and a 100 episode TV series. Shintaro Katsu spent most of his career playing the iconic character – a blind low-class masseur who has blindingly fast swordplay skills. The series mixes action and comedy much like INDIANA JONES.

In his final appearance as Zatoichi, Shintaro also wrote and directed the film. The direction and style is highlights, but the film’s iconic portrayal of the character is what makes the film so wonderful. The film follows Zatoichi on a journey to avenge the murder of a mother and father by warring yakuza (gangsters), which leaves a flock of children orphans. The film takes its time to develop the plot and characters. I especially liked the relationship between Zatoichi and the masterless samurai (Ken Ogata, SEPTEMBER 11).

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