With this film, Takashi Miike has made his most accessible movie to date. I’d argue it is his best because it is tighter and less obsessed with shock than any of his previous work. Some might say this ode to the samurai genre, especially the work of Akira Kurasawa, is his least daring, but his daring sometimes doesn’t make for a compelling story. This is an actioner done the right way.

Set in 1844 when the reign of the samurai was coming to an end, a samurai commits seppuku in protest of the political advancement of Lord Naritsugu (Goro Inagaki, SAIMIN), the son of the former shogun and the brother of the current one. He is a ruthless sadist, who enjoys murder, torture and rape as a form of control over the peasants. Top official Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira, SWORD OF THE BEAST) makes the decision to have Naritsugu assassinated and calls on veteran samurai Shinzaemon (Koji Takusho, SHALL WE DANCE?), who when found is fishing on a ladder in the ocean. Shinzaemon is eager to take the job. He shakes at the thought of having a noble death.

As is a staple of the genre, he seeks out some of the last remaining samurai to recruit them for the virtual suicide mission to ambush Lord Naritsugu’s convoy. He can only find 13 to go against 70. When the epic battle begins, the 13 will be facing 200. But these are distinguished samurai and they have tricks up their sleeves.

Like any good samurai flick, Miike takes his time establishing his characters, so that when the action starts we are captivated with how their personalities come out in battle. Shinzaemon’s right hand man is Kuranaga (Hiroki Matsukata, SHOGUN’S SAMURAI), who shows that age hasn’t slowed his skills with the sword. When Shinzaemon finds his nephew Shimada (Takayuki Yamada, THE CAT RETURNS) he is gambling in a whorehouse. Fans of the genre might expect that his character is the one that legend Toshiro Mifune would have played, but he’s not. Hirayama (Tsuyoshi Ihara, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA) is the quiet killer much like Kyuzo in SEVEN SAMURAI. Kiga Koyata (Yusuke Iseya, CASSHERN) is the mysterious thirteenth assassin who the others meet in the forest. He is the kind of rough and unpredictable character that Mifune would have played. But he might not be human.

The other samurai are the stalwarts of the genre. Mitsuhashi (Ikki Sawamura, STEAMBOY) is the scout. Otake (Seiji Rokkaku) is the heavy-set samurai that serves as comic relief. Hioki (Sosuke Takaoka, BATTLE ROYALE) is the devoted follower of Kuranaga. Higuchi (Yuma Ishigaki, AZUMI) and Horii (Koen Kondo, LINDA LINDA LINDA) are the explosives experts. Sahara (Arata Furuta, HANA) is the oldest samurai who prefers a spear to a sword. Ogura (Masataka Kubota) is the young samurai with little experience, but a lot of heart.

Leading the army set to protect Lord Naritsugu is Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura, FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENT CHILDREN), a former school rival of Shinzaemon, who knows that no matter how many men they bring, if his old classmate is involved, there will be a great deal of bloodshed. He even goes to warn Shinzaemon that the effort is futile and that the time of the samurai is over. Shinzaemon is not persuaded. Lord Naritsugu is perverting the code of the samurai and he does not fear death in defending it.

The siege on the village at the end presents some implausible elements when it comes to the time the 13 samurai have to set their traps, but it’s too fun to mind. By then you are too wrapped up in the story. Miike handles his bloody action with a visceral flare, but never loses his characters in the swordplay. For 40 minutes, we get to see how these warriors handle battle in choreography that we actually get to watch because Miike doesn’t try to hide it with fancy camera work.

Naritsugu is the perfect villain to tell this story with. In a signature Miike moment, we meet one of his victims a naked, starved woman who has had her arms cut off. This is the aloof monster that we want Shinzaemon to take down. He represents the corrupt government that ruled following the nobler reign of the samurai. Shinzaemon knows that the time of the samurai has come to an end. What he can’t stand is that the future is in the hands of men like Naritsugu. He knows he might not succeed, but he will show him what the samurai are all about. One of them will have a noble death for sure.

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This is one of those movies that baffles the mind. Based on the visual excitement in the previews and track record of director Zack Snyder, I eagerly anticipated his first original enterprise. After seeing it, one hopes he sticks to faithful adaptations of other people’s work. It’s epic for sure. An epic fail.

The film beats us over the head right from the start. Baby Doll (Emily Browning, LEMONY SNICKET’S) is a 20 year old woman living at home with her mother and stepfather (Gerard Plunkett, EIGHT BELOW). When her mother dies under suspicious circumstances, she fears for her and her young sister’s life at the hands of their stepfather, who doesn’t inherit the family wealth unless the girls are dead. A series of events transpire that leads the stepfather to have Baby Doll institutionalized and set up for a lobotomy. One has to give it to Snyder to tell his entire first act without dialogue, but it’s done like an aggressive music video and robs the viewer of any emotional connection with the characters and their plight.

The asylum is run by the corrupt orderly Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac, ROBIN HOOD). Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino, SIN CITY) runs play acting exercises for the patients in order to help free them from their problems. Baby Doll takes to the therapy very well and delves into rich fantasy worlds to escape from her “prison.”

The film presents two layers of fantasy and with each layer the film gets less engaging to the audience. In the first layer, Baby Doll casts herself and her fellow patients as striptease artists. Her dances are so provocative and raw that the men get mesmerized by them. This allows her fellow patients to steal the items they need to escape. So you might be thinking, well let me see these dances, but we never see them. When Baby Doll begins to dance, we enter the second and more pointless layer of fantasy.

If having his beautiful young cast dressed up in lingerie and leather in one fantasy world isn’t fetish-like enough, Snyder has them dressed that way and fighting giant metal samurai, zombie WWI soldiers and a dragon in the second layer. Each layer distances us from the reality of what is happening to the characters in the real world. For a good portion of the film there is no sense that anything in the fantasy worlds has any real impact on reality. Thus these extended action sequence drag as Snyder throws every random idea from his Id at the screen.

Trapped in these adventures with Baby Doll is a host of scantily dressed and thinly developed young women. Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish, BRIGHT STAR) is the mother hen of the girls who doesn’t like the risky escape plan of the new girl. Rocket (Jena Malone, SAVED!) is Sweet Pea’s sister who is a trouble magnet. Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL) isn’t blonde. Amber (Jamie Chung, THE HANGOVER PART II) is the sexy Asian. The girl’s mentor in the action fantasy sequences is a wise man, played by Scott Glenn (THE RIGHT STUFF), who must be the alternative to David Carradine as the go-to actor to play white guy Asian-like fortune cookie philosophy spiritual masters.

The substance of the story is secondary to the style. This is never more apparent than in cheating the audience of seeing a key plot point. Not seeing Baby Doll’s dances is a sick tease. The big action sequences are fueled by testosterone not character or emotion or logic. In getting a chance to put his own ideas on the screen, Snyder tried to cram every idea he’s ever had into one film. But all these ideas don’t gel or make a compelling singular story. After being punched in the head with this feature length music video, I’m the one that feels like the sucker.

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Takashi Miike is a director I have been intrigued with for some time. I’ve liked all the films 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).

My description of the plot makes more sense of this convoluted mess than its presented on the screen. The gunslinger is merely an observer — a third-rate gun-for-fire in the mold of YOJIMBO and A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. The stories of Shizuka, the gang war and the legend of famed gunfighter Bloody Benten all come into play and obscure what Miike is trying to get at. When Bloody Benten finally makes an appearance one quickly wonders why they hadn’t come out guns blazing ages before. Oh wait, then we wouldn’t have had to watch this movie — this Bloody Benten is a cold-hearted…

All hyperbole aside, the plot isn’t the only element all over the place. Miike switches tones so often that nothing on the screen can be taken seriously. One moment it’s a post-modern badass Western fused with samurai lore and the next it’s ARMY OF DARKNESS silliness. Making the story even less engaging is a cast of Japanese actors not ready for the English language. The timing is often so awkward you’re not sure the actors actually know what they are saying. And lets not even get into Tarantino hammy performance.

Because westerns influenced samurai films that then influenced spaghetti westerns, it seems natural to make a film combining cowboys and samurais. While Miike conjures some cool visuals, they are attached to nothing of substance, making them pretty pictures flapping in the wind. The title is a play on Italian westerns. Sukiyaki is a Japanese dish. DJANGO was a spaghetti western where a gunman was trapped in a Western town between a Mexican gang and the KKK. You can see the high-class material that influenced this production. Miike has never been a king of narrative, but this experiment doesn’t even have ideas to hide the structural problems. And like a vintage Western set, constructed of plywood, the whole thing collapses when the actors lean on the walls a bit.

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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.

Throughout the film, Sasuke will find out that nothing is as it seems. He is a warrior who is tired of fighting and wants to keep the current peace. He meets and falls for the beautiful orphan Omiyo (Jitsuko Yoshimura, ONIBABA), but after he is implemented in two unexpected murders, he must delve deeper into the current strife.

For the most part, the film works like a combination of a spy intrigue film and a kung-fu flick. The exaggerated fight sequences will look familiar to those who have seen classic kung fu or Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL series. At times, the double crossing and various warring clans become confusing. However, Sasuke remains at the center of the plot, leading us through the story.

Director Masahiro Shinoda raises the film with a keen eye for visual flare and production design. The film looks great. The concluding battle in the fog is a wonderful example of great action timing and setting, even if a deus ex machina ends up ruining it a little. Sometimes, the characters are secondary to the complex plot. I was hoping for the emotional depth of Kihachi Okamoto’s KILL!, but it never came.

Sasuke is a stoic character who we learn very little about, but care about nonetheless because we want to discover the truth same as he does. Additionally, the film has a subtle message that once you are a warrior you can never escape violence once you have enter that world. In the end, SAMURAI SPY is a stylish samurai intrigue tale that succeeds to draw you in, even if there are times you have no clue what is going on.

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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.

Meanwhile, Ryunosuke is set to spar with Bunnojo (Ichiro Nakaya, YOJIMBO), but everyone knows that Ryunosuke will win easily, disgracing Bunnojo. So Bunnojo’s wife Ohama (Michiyo Aratama, KWAIDAN) gives herself to Ryunosuke for the promise that he will let her husband win. Ryunosuke takes her offer, but doesn’t live up to his end of the deal, killing Bunnojo. Left with nothing, Ohama grovels at the feet of Ryunosuke to take her as his so she can survive.

When he’s not drunk, Ryunosuke works as a samurai for hire for a clan with mutiny brewing within. Secretly, Bunnojo’s brother Hyoma (Yuzo Kayama, RED BEARD) trains with the sword master Toranosuke Shimada (Toshiro Mifune, SEVEN SAMURAI). As the story progresses, Hyoma and Omatsu’s paths will cross, kindling a romance.

The film weaves three plotlines together, however its main focus is Ryunosuke Tsukue, played masterfully by Tatsuya. His cold detachment is haunting, however from time to time we get subtle glimpses that he is ashamed and tormented. He is motivated by the desire to be the best swordsmen alive. He seems to believe that his cruelty and unconventional style is the only way to achieve this legendary status. His internal conflict is never more evident than in the scene where the noble Shimada fights his attackers in the snow.

The film seems to be building to a conventional showdown, but it really does surprise us with its conclusion. Some will find it disappointing or unsatisfying, but in connection with the film’s themes and moral, it’s a perfect conclusion to encapsulate the tortured soul of the main character.

Okamoto has a unique style that influenced the work of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah. The stark black & white cinematography and viciously choreographed fight sequences are highlights. One of the fight sequences reminded me greatly of a key fight in Chan-wook Park’s OLDBOY. Okamoto is a truly underrated director, whose accomplishments are newly being recognized via the recent release of several of his films on DVD from Criterion. THE SWORD OF DOOM feels right in place with many of the anti-hero tales of the 1960s, but also feels contemporary for having influenced the visual style of many contemporary filmmakers.

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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.

Unlike KILL!, which paints the nameless ronin more as a mystery, SANJURO never makes us believe that the ronin has ulterior motives, which the character certainly had in YOJIMBO. Much of his film’s enjoyment is watching the nameless ronin, or Sanjuro, counter the bumbling actions of the young samurai.

Mifune is, as always, wonderful. For a man who played samurai for most of his career, he always finds a way to distinguish one from another. He is never falling back on stock characterizations. His YOJIMBO/ SANJURO character is a filthy, smelly ronin, who quietly observes the idiotic world around him. He’s far wiser than his looks make him appear. In YOJIMBO, he was mainly out for himself, however here he has more noble motives, especially after a conversation with the chamberlain’s wife.

Kurosawa again brings this film his excellent eye for composition and a powerful use of metaphorical imagery. Flowers play a big role toward the end. A final battle between Sanjuro and Muroto is quick and bloody, featuring a trademark moment many future samurai films would copy to excess. Here, the moment shocks and brings home fully the message of non-violence. Kurasawa was a master filmmaker, who made intelligent entertainments. None of his films have ever let me down.

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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.

Genta (Tatsuya Nakadai, RAN) is a former samurai who has lost the taste for fighting. Hungry, he runs into a young farmer named Tabata (Etsushi Takahashi, ZATOICHI AT LARGE), who dreams of becoming a samurai. Both men end up getting caught between sides in a civil war between factions of a samurai clan, lead by corrupt chamberlain Ayuzama (Shigeru Koyama, ZATOICHI MEETS YOJIMBO). Leading the seven rebels is Tetsutaro (Naoko Kubo, ZATOICHI’S FLASHING SWORD), who is in love with the beautiful Chino (Yuriko Hoshi, GHIDRAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER), however he is not the only one of the rebels who loves her, which makes for some tension when they are all holed up in a cabin in the woods. Complication after complication pile one on top of the other. There are a lot of other key characters that I didn’t mention, but to list them all would be tough and would give away too many of the film’s surprises.

Nakadai is perfect as the weary former samurai who finds it easier to blend in unseen with rogue yakuza. Genta wants to persuade Tabata to abandon the way of the samurai, but he does it in a very subtle “you’ll see” manner. His laisser faire attitude toward the clan fighting only adds to the mystery of why he gets involved. How he plays both sides is brilliant and once we learn his past we are touched.

The film’s wonderful black and white cinematography uses a lot of nice foreground-background compositions, which are common in Spaghetti Westerns. The opening title music is straight out of the Spaghetti Western realm. Director Kihachi Okamoto (SAMURAI ASSASSIN) also has amazing comedic timing, which he skillfully weaves in at unexpected moments. Okamoto also plays with the conventions of the samurai genre. Certain aspects are taken to extremes, which would become more commonplace in later installments of the ZATOICHI series. It’s a fun action film that is endlessly entertaining.

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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.

The film is a classic Japanese legend, which has been filmed many times. Mizoguchi meticulously chronicles the samurai code of loyalty as the dedicated samurai wait for the proper moment to seek their revenge. The film’s black and white cinematography is beautifully composed. However, the narrative drags and seems often too redundant. There are so many characters introduced you never come to identify with any core individual or group. Only towards the end of the film does Oishi come to the forefront and add an emotional weight and intrigue to the picture. Not having seen the second part and finding it difficult to find, I may reevaluate the two films as a whole, but as itself THE 47 RONIN PART 1 is a slow paced, but interesting piece of history and art.

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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. As the title suggests, this is not a modern tale, but it still echoes the loneliness of modern workaholic Japan.

Seibei’s daughter Ito (Erina Hashiguchi, film debut) narrates the film. She tells us that her father has learned that his friend’s sister Tomoe (Rie Miyazawa, BASARA - THE PRINCESS GOH) is divorcing her abusive 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 the people who know him wouldn’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 blackmailed into confronting renegade samurai Yogo (Min Tanaka), who has already killed one samurai who was sent after him.

The tale is a character piece and a romance. The story is simple, but develops unique truths along the way. Once Seibei must go off to fight, the film doesn’t turn the story off and focus on swordplay. It uses the first two-thirds of the film to develop the characters and then changes the setting to bring new depth to Seibei toward the end. The performances are wonderful. Sanada is perfect as the dutiful servant who works hard for his family, but doesn’t expect any joy for himself. That’s why the tenderness of Miyazawa’s performance touches the audience so strongly, because we believe that he and her deserve better. The cinematography is beautiful with its muted colors. There is a sad tone to the film, but that doesn’t stop it from being ironically humorous at times and even iconic in some of the fight scenes.

Director Yoji Yamada is a legend in Japan, but little known in the States. He is best known for his TORA-SAN film series, which spans 48 installments over 26 years. His mastery of pacing and tone is perfect. He hits the right note at all times. I loved the artistic and unexpected conclusion between Seibei and Yogo. It reminded me a lot of Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando in APOCALYPSE NOW. It’s a beautiful film that should not be missed.

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