280 The Sword of Doom
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280 The Sword of Doom
The Sword of Doom
[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/1340/280_box_348x490_w128.jpg[/img]
Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune star in the story of a wandering samurai who exists in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman—plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule—Ryunosuke (Nakadai) kills without remorse, without mercy. It is a way of life that ultimately leads to madness. The Criterion Collection is proud to present director Kihachi Okamoto's swordplay classic The Sword of Doom, the thrilling tale of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil.
Special Features
-New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-Audio commentary featuring film historian Stephen Prince
-Trailer
-PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
Criterionforum.org user rating averages
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[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/1340/280_box_348x490_w128.jpg[/img]
Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune star in the story of a wandering samurai who exists in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman—plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule—Ryunosuke (Nakadai) kills without remorse, without mercy. It is a way of life that ultimately leads to madness. The Criterion Collection is proud to present director Kihachi Okamoto's swordplay classic The Sword of Doom, the thrilling tale of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil.
Special Features
-New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-Audio commentary featuring film historian Stephen Prince
-Trailer
-PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
Criterionforum.org user rating averages
Feature currently disabled
Last edited by Martha on Fri Feb 11, 2005 2:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Picturing The Leopard with a super-badass psychotic samurai in the Burt Lancaster role, at first with Lancaster actually playing the role with Italian dubbing, but then replaced by Mifune.Narshty wrote:It's kind of like the same cross between a character study and historical epic as The Leopard, except this one's about a super-badass psychotic samurai who makes Toshiro Mifune look like Mr Rogers.
Cool!!!
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And might I venture, "Amazing Cover!" . that is, before I get sent off to the Cover Art Babble-On Forum.
P.S.
Has anyone seen some of Okamoto's other films?
His Age of Assassins (or Epoch of Murder Madness) is rated a 9.6 on IMDB and is apparently a "comedy"?!
I'm especially itching to hear about his post-Sword of Doom 60's work like Kill!, The Human Bullet, and Red Hair.
P.S.
Has anyone seen some of Okamoto's other films?
His Age of Assassins (or Epoch of Murder Madness) is rated a 9.6 on IMDB and is apparently a "comedy"?!
I'm especially itching to hear about his post-Sword of Doom 60's work like Kill!, The Human Bullet, and Red Hair.
- Godot
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Well, I second Matt's enthusiasm. Although this will be relatively barebones, it is much welcome. I recorded this off IFC last year (along with another Okamoto, Kill! (1968)), and have susequently seen two others by him (Samurai Assassin (1965) and Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970)) and have been delighted by them all. His command of action scenes is impressive, especially in setting up the calm pockets that give the flurries of strikes such power. Sword of Doom is my favorite, featuring a unique psychopathic main character, who doesn't so much develop as descend into his fateful doom (similar to Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly, but not doomed by hubris as much as cruelty and genetic code). TheJohn wrote:I've never, ever heard of this movie, or its director, before. Comments? Views?
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opening murder
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that leads to the protagonist being evicted and wiping out his victim's friends in the woods during an astonishing high-angle travelling shot
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where Mifune poses as the emissary he is guarding and dismembers the attackers
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where the shadows/ghosts of his past victims surround the protagonist and drive him to fight against everyone and everything, leading to the final image of him attacking the camera/audience head-on, a really striking emotional image of futilely battling fate ... that freeze-frame is marvelous
The later two movies have elements of parody as Okamoto seems to be commenting on the genre and stylish touches he proliferated, but they both also feature fantastic swordplay scenes (and, shockingly, a pistol in Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo). I would say if you like Seijun Suzuki, Sergio Leone, Fuller, and the dark side of the force, you will enjoy Okamoto's films, particularly Sword of Doom.
Last edited by Godot on Wed Dec 22, 2004 5:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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It's also the third movie in the collection teaming Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune as samurai warrirors.And it's one more movie in Criterion DVD with Toshiro Mifune ...
Frankly that right there is the reason I'm picking this movie up come March. It's ridiculous how few movies you get involving characters devoted to nothing more than evil. Especially involving swords.The Sword of Doom, the thrilling story of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil."
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With the two Suzukis and this Okamoto, you are in for a healthy meal of it.John wrote:I'm due for carnage and mayhem...
As I'm sure you remember, Youth of the Beast features start-to-finish beatings, stompings, whipings, threatening tension-filled confrontations, rifle-adoration and fondling, torture, and Jo Shishido's puffed cheeks. Fighting Elegy has more screaming, pummelling, kicking and general jackassing than any other film I can remember; at one point, the characters are flailing in all directions, just spurting testosterone. And Sword of Doom may have more on-screen deaths than any other CC entry. (Now there's a competition...)
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...Sold.Godot wrote:Youth of the Beast features start-to-finish beatings, stompings, whipings, threatening tension-filled confrontations, rifle-adoration and fondling, torture, and Jo Shishido's puffed cheeks. Fighting Elegy has more screaming, pummelling, kicking and general jackassing than any other film I can remember
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Yes, that was my lead-weighted punning at work. Fighting Elegy features a character with a perpetual erection (except for the one scene in which he masturbates off-screen, in a sort of humorous ellipse), and more tented pants, stiff posture, and knowing glances waist-ward than any other CC release. It's like Un Chant D'Amour, by Paul Morrissey or Joel Coen, except with a 15-year old Japanese school girl as l'objet de lust.this is the Suzuki that deal with masturbation issues, right?
The "spurting" sort of reminded me...
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I'm excited about this one. Watched it a few years ago and don't remember clearly, but after watching it I felt it was one of the best Samurai movie I've seen. Thereis lots of action, but it contains plenty of slow parts too, I'd say it's a metaphysical samurai movie. And the ending is very memorable.
Last edited by Simon on Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Sword of Doom is not really a samurai film. It is pure chambara.I'd say it's a metaphysical samurai movie
Within the samurai cycle, Sword of Doom holds a very minor rank. It is an adaptation of Daibosatsu Toge, which also is the original title, a quiet famous Japanese story about an evil samurai and a evil sword, filmed several times before. More than a study of the samurai, it is an action film, as Okamoto, like Gosha, made violence and action into expressive elements of their compositions. However where the protagonists of Gosha reflect, if only briefly, those of Okamoto does not. While it is an exaggeration to say that his films are endless swordfights, at the same time, it really isn't.
The reason why it holds such a minor rank as a samurai film is, that there is no aspect of giri versus ninjo, nor bushido. As such, the chambara of Okamoto is unpersonal and unrelated to the samurai, and is basically just endless violence, which he even stresses with the freeze frame ending of Sword of Doom, suggesting the protagonist trapped forever within the violence.
However, why Criterion would release this film is really hard to understand. It is almost if like the producer either saw the film at a festival or read about it in a book and then decided to release it. Okamoto is not any major director, Sword of Doom is not a major film, not even within the samurai cycle, where it almost has footnote quality. While Criterion yet has to release Kobayashi's Rebellion and Hara-Kiri, to name the two most important samurai films, also to continue their release of Kobayashi, this sort of is like if Criterion would release one of the Zatoichi or Lone Wolf films, and then leave it at that.