All I knew about the Japanese movie The Sword Of Doom (1966) was the iconic image of a samurai in the middle distance of a forest, submerged in fog and surrounded by bodies felled by his sword. I didn’t realise that the film’s main character was an embodiment of evil. Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai) is a skilled swordsman and only has feeling for his sword; everything else, he is happy to cut down without any emotion. At first, I thought this might be an anti-hero narrative like Bad Lieutenant, just following someone so amoral dominate for two hours. Thankfully, the film weaves in other characters and sub-plots including a samurai Hyoma (Yūzō Kayama from Red Beard) who is training tirelessly to fight Ryunosuke for revenge over a family member slain, Hyoma’s master, Shimada Toranosuke (the great Toshiro Mifune) who observes wisely from a distance, a young maiden (Yoko Naito) who catches Hyoma’s eye and her protective father-figure who is also a thief, (Kō Nishimur), all of whom pass by Ryunosuke’s orbit. All the while, there are ronin who form a squad to support the shogunate and employ Ryunosuke’s skill for assassinations and attacks. Nakadai’s lead performance is quite something, an eerie display of growing madness, as he sits without feeling or passion, only activated by the chance to duel someone and inevitably take a life through his style, which draws in an opponent to attack. It’s a dark, involving performance of an amoral character, a stark contrast to the heroes of something like Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. There are several memorable battle scenes including Ryunosuke running through a group of samurai, filmed in a side-angle tracking shot, or the attack on Mifune’s character in the snow which is a true show stopper. Right up to the apocalyptic finale, which presents an escalation into madness within a fiery mise en scene. Directed by Kihachi Okamoto who also directed movies like Samurai Assassin, Kill! and Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo. Filmed in glorious black-and-white, the film is based on a classic Japanese serial by Kaizan Nakazato. Watched the Criterion Channel Blu-Ray. Recommended.
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