Samouraï sans honneur

It would never have occurred to me that Gosha’s first movie hiccup would happen with such a rewarding theme as the famous adventures of Tange Sazen. Who cares that Gosha doesn’t give a damn about artistic ambition and that he filmed this one-watch nonsense? As he proved in the series about Kiba, he’s suits him really well. But several factors came together here that bring it down to the level of routine. On the one hand, stylization of the main character which is with all due respect ridiculous. Then there’s the story which, despite dealing with the director’s usual topics, is terribly slap-dash and it’s only purpose is to move the movie along to another “Tange versus countless ninjas" scene. And this is all highlighted by the fact that visually this is Gosha’s most interesting movie. As if he became so intoxicated by the pure presence of color that he completely ignores any attempt at visual ingenuity and precision that is otherwise so characteristic of him. The result is a dime-a-dozen, run-of-the-mill chanbara genre movie. (31/03/2013)