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> The Sword of Doom - Criterion Collection |
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see larger picture
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Staring:
Tatsuya Nakadai,
Yûzô Kayama,
Michiyo Aratama,
Yôko Naitô,
Tadao Nakamaru
Director:
Kihachi Okamoto
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $17.89
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 9780780029637
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0780029631
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-03-15
Running Time: 119
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: 1966-07-01 |
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Description
Wandering samurai Ryunosuke lives his life in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman—plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule—he kills without remorse, without mercy.
Amazon.com
Boasting some of the most impressive swordplay in the history of samurai epics, Sword of Doom is a visceral masterpiece of violent style and powerful substance. Illustrating the timeless adage that "an evil soul wields an evil sword," this highly stylized classic is driven by the fierce and fearsome performance of Tatsuya Nakadai as Ryunosuke, a sociopathic samurai whose soul--and sword--are vicious instruments of evil. Having mastered a highly unconventional style of fencing, Ryunosuke welcomes an exhibition match at a fencing school run by master swordsman Shimada (Toshirô Mifune, in a small but pivotal role), where he kills his opponent after promising not to. Flagrantly violating all codes of honor, Ryunosuke eventually finds himself challenged from all sides; even his own henchmen rally against him, and director Kihachi Okamoto stages confrontations that are as beautiful as they are graphically violent. As Ryunosuke descends into pure, bloodthirsty insanity, Sword of Doom ends with a freeze-frame that's unforgettably intense. --Jeff Shannon
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Great except for last 20 minutes, 2009-10-10
I liked this movie about a psychotic Samuri who eventually goes mad until, well, he goes mad. Maybe I fell asleep during 5 minutes of the movie too, because there seemed to be a big plot gap towards the end. One minute Ryunosuke is suppose to fight a duel with the brother of a samuri he killed, but the next he is scene in Edo, and no mention is made of the duel. What the heck? The ends with ol' Ryunosuke going crazy, and apparently damned to some kind of hell fighting his demons. Yawn. Save the psycho-babble ending for someone else and give me a show-down between Ryunosuke and Shimada!
sword of doom, 2009-03-30
You could start out thinking this is how action movies are meant to be made. No CG, no stand ins or doubles. Not speaking Japanese, I sort of in away, let the visuals and the tone lead me along. I love the scenery and the lighting in this film.
Several scenes remind me of a broadway play. At one point lurking shadows slowly moving forward, growing in size, become The Swordmans own worst enemy.
A different sort of twist on the main character, letting his faults and sometimes plain evilness shine through for some sort of impacting kindness. A few pints of Black and white blood, and a handful of falling limbs, sometimes slightly over the top, bordeing on campy. Yet the over all picture has a deep down dark feel to it. Great ending. "going out with sword blazing" or is He?
Samurai Bloody Masterpiece, 2009-07-21
I absolutely love Japanese cinema but I would advice caution for beginners here as the violence is constant and pretty extreme.
The story follows the life of Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai), an evil samurai, that was once fascinated by the concept of evil and totally sucumbed to it through mindless violence. He is a master swordsman with an unorthodox, unpredictable style that is the key to his ferocious success. Ryunosuke first appearence is marked by the unholy act of killing an elderly Buddhist pilgrim, whom he stumbles upon while praying for death/reincarnation. He appears to have no regrets. Critic Chuck Stephens charts the ascendancy of this `eighth samurai' and perfectly describes him thus: "Nakadai displayed an unadorned exterior that tended less toward suave than somehow slightly embalmed. The qualities that truly define him are those that seem sprung from electrifying forces deep within--a stentorian baritone that might belong to the devil's own ventriloquist dummy, and a pair of orb-wide eyes as alabaster as snake's eggs so eerily inner-illuminated they threaten to rupture into liquid light." This description is 100% accurate for this film.
Later, he kills again this time, an opponent in a fencing competition that degenerated into a duel after he abused his opponent's wife. This forces him to leave his home town with this traumatized woman who becomes attached to him and actually loves this monster. To make a living, Ryunosuke decides to join a group of unemployed samurai and travelling bandits that group together to make up a quasy-official security force made up of Ronin warriors who support the Tokugawa Shogunate through an enforced policy of murder and assassinations.
Whether killing a man or at home with his woman and their baby son, Ryunosuke never shows any emotion. His expression is fixed in an empty, characteristic stare that suggests the insanity we know must be a component of a serial killer's psyche.
Eventually Ryunosuke learns that the brother of the man he killed in the fencing match is looking for him, intent on revenge. He plans to meet this man and kill him, among other things because his woman tells him to spare him,but before the duel can take place,events start to develop that are going to tilt his self-assurance and the outcome of the film.
In a failed assassination attempt, he stands by as a witness, as another master swordsman, Shimada Toranosuke (Toshiro Mifune), destroys all his oponents on Ryunosuke's team under the light of an eerily snowy night, and for the first time he doubts that his own skill is as unbeatable as he believed. That same night, Ryunosuke's woman, horrified by his persistantly evil disposition, tries to kill him iwhile he sleeps. She runs to him dagger in hand and we almost think she has done it, when he springs and overcomes her. Although she confesses to love him still, she begs him to kill her rather than to abandon her and the baby. He surprises her by complying, with a single stroke he takes her down and while we never actually see him killing the baby, he flees without keeping his appointment for the duel with the avenging brother, so we can assume that the baby dies abandoned.
Later he meets up with the gang of assassins at a geisha house of pleasure. In a room where a beautiful geisha killed herself in the past, he is holding one of the girls because he believes she overheard his conversation, the girl starts to see the ghost of the geisha first, and then he starts seeing the ghosts of all the people he has butchered in his own past. Furthermore, he is haunted by the words he heard from Shimada: "The sword is the soul. Study the soul to know the sword. An evil soul is an evil sword."
All hell breaks lose wneh he realizes from her nervous stuttering, that the geisha sent to entertain him is actually the granddaughter of that pilgrim he had murdered at the beginning of the movie.
He starts slashing at the shadows of the ghosts that he thinks he hears around him, breaking walls, and anything surrounding him that he can slash with his blade. He then turns on his fellow assassins, who seem to multiply the more he kills them off. In one several minutes-long sequence of a sword fight, which has to be one of the longest ever made, Ryunosuke keeps on killing until we feel the entire gang may well be wiped out of existence.
At some point in the struggle a fire develops and rages through the house and he keeps on slashing his enemies, except at an ever slower place as he is bleeding profusely from his wounds, and suddenly as he thrusts towards us the camera freezes and the movie is over. We don't know the outcome.
I found out that the movie was suppossed to be part of a series as it was inspired on an eleven-volume samurai novel. But the author of the books died before he could finish the novel and we will never know what ending he had in store for that neurotic killing machine, Ryunosuke Tsukue.
Great film!, 2010-06-28
I really liked this movie. The main character is fascinating to watch (even though the film is in b&w and I had to read the subtitles). On the surface he appears to be detached and vacant, but his eyes speak volumes! Ever so subtlely, as the film progresses, you can see his eyes change and become ever so slightly more crazed and sad (to the credit of the actor). It's a great character study!
Overall, beyond just the main character, the film itself is fascinating to watch (again, even though it's in b&w). The director makes incredible use of imagery to bolster whatever is going on in the story at any particular moment. The entire film was very watchable and engaging.
The film is violent, but this is the nature of the subject matter. By today's standards of film making, the violence is not exceptional.
Other reviewers have commented about what appeared to be a disjointed ending to the film. For me, the ending worked. What on the surface may have seemed to be loose ends, on a deeper level I think were irrelevancies to the main character as he progressed in his madness and different events unfolded (such as his witnessing the fight, and victory, by the lone swordfighting teacher against the band of well-armed and skilled samurai). At a minimum, these apparent loose ends present some interesting thoughts to ponder about the internal state of the main character (of course, I could just be overintepreting).
Nevertheless, if you like deep character studies, I suggest you give this film a try!
Part I of a Nonexistent Trilogy, 2009-08-02
Unaware that 'The Sword of Doom' was intended as the first of a trilogy, my initial reaction was incredulity at the ending. After some research and reflection, I believe that director Kihachi Okamoto succeeded regardless of the unresolved ending. It may have even enhanced the movie.
Tatsuya Nakadai (who went on to play Lord Hidetora Ichimonji in Kurosawa's 'Ran') is Ryûnosuke Tsukue, a sociopathic ronin in the waning years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. His corruption precipitates a distended chain of events, until ghosts from the past assault his weakened sanity while corporeal enemies attack in the real world. Toshiro Mifune shines in an understated cameo, which made me wonder about the over-the-top roles he did for Kurosawa (The pair's collaboration had ended the year before.) In fact, for me, Okamoto's direction was clear and coherent, and I'd recommend this movie to those who have questioned Kurosawa's highly stylized methods if only for another view of Japanese cinema.
However, 'Sword' is firmly ensconced in the samurai genre, with its requisite sword fights involving the protagonist battling overwhelming odds - and succeeding. I understand that this is de rigueur, and 'Sword' has plenty enough to satisfy convention, but a far more compelling aspect of the film is Nakadai's performance as the amoral samurai. Enough distance exists between the viewer and the film that his acting is entertaining instead of disturbing, but it is excellent nonetheless, and introduces gray shades in a genre that, from what I've seen, is traditionally all black or all white.
This Criterion edition is stunning - a crisp transfer that lacks nothing in comparison to a color feature. The crispness highlights Okamoto's energetic and unique (in my uneducated opinion) direction - he may not have the reputation of Kurosawa, but several times I noted his inspired camera work, and realized that his own style was more than satisfactory.
After viewers are armed with the information that they are not going to get any traditional resolution to the film, I'd highly recommend this movie to fans of the samurai genre and of film in general. Nakadai impeccably portrays a sociopath's descent into madness, and Okamoto is a splendid director - taken together, the effect is an excellent and entertaining film, and a chance to reevaluate my assumptions about Japanese cinema.
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