Sword of the Beast

Like Leone changed the face of the western once and for all, Gosha once and for all changed the face of chanbara samurai cinema. And in a way not too unlike how Leone achieved this in the West at around the same time. Although in his debut, Gosha took the first step on his departure from the classic, honorable, bushido-respecting ascetic samurais, it is here that he brings his revolutionary approach to the genre to absolute perfection. The ends justify the means applies at every given moment for the clans and also for all the characters who are brought together by a gold-rich river. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you take it as holding up a mirror to society (and that’s is certainly what Gosha intended) or a pure genre movie with no overlap. It is perfect in both positions. It also glitters with highly polished, golden directing and with an incredible sense for contrasting black and white compositions full of wonderful exterior tableaus, playing with camera angles and perfectly choreographed duels with long, single-shot sequences with brief cuts from the main protagonist’s point of view. Simply a gem (not just of this genre). (03/23/2013)