average
4.06/5
top 100: #30

drélium	4.5
Ghost Dog	4.5
Ordell Robbie	4.25

In 1860, samurais are divided into many clans: those who concentrate on the art of swordfighting, those who try to participate to the political intrigues of the Shogun and those who are fascinated by violence. Amond those lasts is Rynosuke Tsukue who kills Omatsu's grandfather. During a tornament, moved by his attraction for Bunnojo Utsugi's wife, he kills Bunnojo Utsugi. Violence begins to strike him...

The movie is already worth seeing due to a sccreenplay dealing with the end of the ideals of the bushido with sharpness and realism (i.e. not in the parodic way of the Babycart series) and a huge casting (Mifune, Nakadai, no comment). But the directing which is worth seeing with the remarkable use of close frames and a score of Sato Masaru pretty much close to his work on Le Garde du corps and Sanjuro add to the pleasure of the spectator. The pleasant idea of the movie is Rynosuke's very special sword technique which consists in being very static and wait for the adversary's attack to strike him. This does create the special mood of swordfighting scenes which are resolving after a long time of waiting. The presence of snow in some swordfighting scenes add to the ghostlike aspect of the fighters. But mostly the movie is leading use to a universe with no morality and Rynosuke seems possessed by the evil power of his sword. Shimada (Toshiro Mifune) will say about him: « he's beginning to lose confidence in his sword». The idea of the weapon as the incarnation of the rage of a lonely man only led by his desire of revenge will influence Chang Cheh and Tsui Hark. This aspect is most striking in the final bloodshed which shows us Rynosuke having cut all the links with the real world and guided by its paranoia.

visitor	grade
OKAMINOSUKE	5
Hojo	5
noar13	5
k-chan	5
hkyume	5
cinéfils	5
Stash Kroms	5
mattMAGNUM	4.75
Iron Monkey	4.75
Scalp	4.75
Samehada	4.75
Le Coati Scorpion	4.75
DarK ChoueTTe	4.75
Pikul	4.5
Qumran	4.5
Mounir	4.5
seizan	4.5
Shalashaska	4.5
Christian D	4.5
koalaurent	4.5
Sifu Tetsuo	4.25
Cuneyt Arkin	4.25
Clyde	4.25
TsimShaTsui	4.25
Hidelirium	4.25
Secret Tears	4.25
JoHell	4.25
Illitch Dillinger	4.25
Omerieux	4
ikoo2mi	4
Dakysto	4
Titeuf@	3.75
Bastian Meiresonne	3.75
Chang La Rage	3.75
Sauzer	3.5
ELZimmerman	2.5
Chip E	2.5
White Snake	2

DOOMed from the Start?

Tatsuya Nakadai plays a marvelously evil samurai who only finds greatness at the cost of madness in this bloody 1966 Japanese film, SWORD OF DOOM. Structured like a good novel (and based on one by Kaizan Nakazato), DOOM allows the viewer to follow the lives of several separate people -- two samurais, two women, and a thief -- as they are inexorably drawn closer and closer together ... and a seemingly chance meeting brings this boiling masterpiece to a violent, destructive head. However, the real mastery of this film is the sword choreography, though Nakadai's brooding menace certainly keeps the viewer riveted to the screen. Rarely has a samurai film moved to the level of the bloodbath fighting that quite probably was associated to true samurai matches, and certainly, as the product packaging provides, nods to influences of Peckinpah, Leone, and (much later) John Woo are warranted. The climax -- the inevitable explosion of a man driven mad by the ghosts of his past -- is brilliantly staged and executed. Along for the ride in a blistering cameo is Toshiro Mifune who, in five minutes of screen time, shows what a tour de force performance is truly meant to be. If DOOM has any shortcoming, it might be an inability to reach a suitable conclusion with Western sensibilities. American influences almost require a neat and tidy packaged ending to films, and DOOM postulates one much like BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID where the fate of the participants is largely left to the imagination of the viewer. As the mad Nakadai swings and swings his way through his final showdowns with the gang he has long served, the audience is never given the ultimate vision of his survival or demise ... and that's the beauty of the tale. In the arc of his character, the samurai has already found and faced his fate, and it is madness ... Grim, inescapable madness.