Kumokiri Nizaemon

It's good, not great.

Visually this film is very strong. The framing and composition of mostly every shot is pleasing to the eye and elevates the scene it captures. The choreography of the action is generally pretty great, though there are a few moments where I had to wonder why it was that everyone with a sword felt obligated to attack one at a time no matter what. This is an issue with a lot films in the action genre, but it seems that every chanbara film I've ever seen, which is a fair amount, has this problem. Maybe there's something about group sword fighting I'm not aware of. Who knows. The issues with the choreography are few and far between though and overall this film is an absolute joy to look at.

The presentation becomes a bit more questionable when it comes to the sound of the film. The noises that the swords make when they clash into one another during some, or most, of the fighting is a bit exaggerated to the point of being a touch goofy. I don't I was personally bothered by it that much and I even found enjoyment in how over the top it was, but I could see people becoming very irritated with the sounds of the sword strikes. The soundtrack itself is also potentially hazardous. Rather than create a score which evokes the early eighteenth century setting, the soundtrack feels like it was created for a cops and robbers thriller. I get the impression that is intentional. The film is meant to be a sort of gangster flick set in feudal Japan, juxtaposing the modern story elements with a period setting. That's all well and good, but it might have been better to go with a score that fit the setting rather than a modern sound which was doomed to date the film in a way the samurai swordplay never could.

The story itself is good generally. It does run into the potential issue of a gang of vaguely defined characters who all sort of dress and act the same with a few exceptions. Besides the core group of main characters I sometimes had a difficult time keeping track of who was who and what they were after. That being said, Tatsuya Nakadai brings a lot to the table and the film is well acted despite some weakness in the character writing. The story gets a little muddled around the third act when the motivations of certain characters become a bit more difficult to decipher, but the action keeps the stakes clear on a more scene by scene basis.

If you like the genre then there's a good chance you'll like the film. If, like myself, you're a big fan of Tatsuya Nakadai then I would definitely recommend it. So far as Gosha is concerned, this is the first film I've seen from him but it makes me curious about his other work. Finally, and I probably don't need to say this at this point, it's a bit long, and it's debatable whether or not it really has to be. Still good though.

Confusing and half-hearted storyline about a samurai's revenge against the clan that betrayed him. Or something like that. It's unoriginal, uninspiring, with mediocre direction, acting, and plot throughout. Definitely not one of Gosha's better movies, which is too bad, as he's really put out some good ones when working with the right team.

Nakadai Tatsuya is fun to watch as always, but he's not on screen long enough to carry your interest with this one.

Avoid unless you're a big fan of either Nakadai the actor or Gosha the director (and I'm a big fan of both!)

This is a whole different movie if you understand the emotional intent and the intenseness of a revenge planned over ten years in advance. What was a band of bandits has become a clan. It is about two brothers whose father was killed for embezzlement AND his family ordered to be executed. The band/clan of thieves comes together for one last attempt to revenge their family against the Samurai with the older wanting revenge against the leader of the "Bureau" of Samurai who enforce laws. The younger one is intent on relieving the Samurai of their treasures as a last single act which will fund the retirement of the clan of thieves. There is more to this than clash of swords and the flashes of nudity in the plot.

I'm sure that even if you're reading this you're very possibly curious about what it's like and I would recommend it...though perhaps only if you've got nearly three hours to kill and you're heavily into samurai flicks, or I guess like Tatsuya Nakadai.

Basically this is very inconsistent, with flashes of real genius (and clearly an influence on modern western directors) and then there are other parts that make no sense at all. In fairness, I gather these films tend to get badly edited and that may explain a lot and as a Westerner there are always references made in these films, or ways characters deliberately behave, that we culturally just don't understand and it doesn't help us as western viewers. However, that's not to criticise our own "anglo-saxon" notion of how a story should develop, and its not to detract from the fact that there are parts of the film that frankly don't make a lot of sense, but as said, give it a watch if you are curious, just don't worry if you go "Uh!?" a lot thinking the film is a work of demented intelligence and you don't get it...the point is parts of it just don't make sense. But still, I did find if captivating and I just ignored the dodgy bits.

As for lovers of lots of blood in your samurai flick - you will definitely love parts of this. In fact, next time my friends are over I'm going to show them the gory bits! Well you know...boys...

Let's just say if you've seen the end of Kurosawa's Sanjuro, this is the same, except it happens a few times more...and in colour.

How can you go wrong with a violent, sleazy, unapologetically dramatic and surprisingly beautiful Japanese action movie called Bandits vs Samurai Squadron?

Well, you can make it an extravagant 163 minutes long I guess, ensuring that it certainly overstays its welcome and meanders a bit in places, and is far from a "great" movie overall.

But despite the length, it's actually narratively a little tighter than some of Gosha's more all over the place films, and the action sequences are satisfying and very over the top in the bloodshed they contain.

Another minor complain would be that it did t contain quite as much Tatsuya Nakadai as I was hoping for, given he does have top billing here and this turns out to be more of an ensemble piece, but the screen time he does have is great, and very few people have ever been able to pull of samurai action scenes as well as him.