Kill, la forteresse des samouraïs

A tangle of many opportunistic intrigues masquerading as gender and bushido honour, resulting in the "seven besieged" with several stakeholders in the impending conflict. From the betrayed samurai acting in good faith, to the high-reward lured ronin unrelated to the clan sent to eliminate them out of sight of the shogunate, to the clan forces who believe the former acted on their own, attempted a coup, and dishonored the clan, and are to see to it that neither of the former two groups make it out alive to tarnish the clan's good name. And then there’s the duo who start playing it on all sides. It is through the pair of "an idealistic farmer longing to become a samurai" and "a disillusioned ex-samurai" that brings a touch of wit, detachment and satire to an otherwise classically constructed samurai flick. At times, their escapades during the changing of sides would tempt one to classify them almost as commedia dell arte, but it's never madcap and always comes back in the end to oppression, honour and the motivations of everyone caught up in the conflict. And, of course, the frequent crossing of katanas. It has an unrelenting pace, great performances from everyone (Nakadai in particular surprises in his not-so-typical role of the villain), and it looks and sounds great too. The sixties were rich in similar kind of genre films in Japan with great quality and memorable pieces (by Okamoto, Goshi, Kurosawa and others) and this one is by no means in the shadow of the best ones. (08/01/2021)