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Sword of Doom (1966) – Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
“Evil mind, evil sword”
Although I am still very new to samurai movies, having only seen a few must-see moies like Seven Samurai, Harakiri, and Yojimbo, I know a damn good samurai movie when I see one. But I've spent a lot of time looking for only a few obvious movies all over the place like Sanjuro and Samurai 1, 2 and 3 and having little luck. How embarrassed was I when I realized I overlooked a very important one? That movie is Sword of Doom.
I first payed attention to the movie when I read a review by Movieforums member reviewed it, and I considered the review to be well-written and interesting enough for me to watch the movie soon after reading the review. I looked for it and found it, and I'm glad to say I watched it, because the movie was wonderful.
Sword of Doom is an adaptation of a Japanese serial novel where a murderous samurai flees his home after a duel and joins a group of assassins, slowly but surely descending into madness. As his past catches up with him, the movie concludes with a shocking twist and an abrupt cliffhanger for an ending.
It took a few minutes for the movie to really get interesting. But right after the movie got good, it got better every ten minutes. The direction of the movie was phenomenal. The cinematography was perfect, showing off whatever was necessary in a simple but proper artistic manner, never losing touch. And this matched well with the action in the movie. The sword battles were far more fun to watch than the battles in Seven Samurai, and Nakadai's skills were incredible. The shot where he slowly walks through an attacking gang killing everyone in one swift slice was incredible.
The acting was wonderful as well. Nakadai got into character very easily, playing someone who was downright secretly nuts. I felt uncomfortable looking at his face when he did that. And one of my favorite scenes comes after many shots of him smiling after a kill, when he sees Toshiro Mifune slaying his teammates and he's scared s***less.
And another thing I noticed is how much darker this movie was from the samurai movie's I've seen. Without any dialogue to examine it, the film uses Nakadai's faces to show how deep the psychological scars are going.
If I had to fault the movie for anything, it's for the complexity. I love complex movies, but this isn't the same thing as Tarkovsky's experiemental film, The Mirror. It's not a movie built for complexity, which means there's nothing to justify the fact that the movie is hard to follow.
Despite that problem, I believe Sword of Doom is one of the finest samurai movies out there. Anyone who's into movies should check this out at least once. A dark touch and a twisted story make this movie one of the best.
Recommended for: samurai fans and psycholgical thriller fans.
“Evil mind, evil sword”
Although I am still very new to samurai movies, having only seen a few must-see moies like Seven Samurai, Harakiri, and Yojimbo, I know a damn good samurai movie when I see one. But I've spent a lot of time looking for only a few obvious movies all over the place like Sanjuro and Samurai 1, 2 and 3 and having little luck. How embarrassed was I when I realized I overlooked a very important one? That movie is Sword of Doom.
I first payed attention to the movie when I read a review by Movieforums member reviewed it, and I considered the review to be well-written and interesting enough for me to watch the movie soon after reading the review. I looked for it and found it, and I'm glad to say I watched it, because the movie was wonderful.
Sword of Doom is an adaptation of a Japanese serial novel where a murderous samurai flees his home after a duel and joins a group of assassins, slowly but surely descending into madness. As his past catches up with him, the movie concludes with a shocking twist and an abrupt cliffhanger for an ending.
It took a few minutes for the movie to really get interesting. But right after the movie got good, it got better every ten minutes. The direction of the movie was phenomenal. The cinematography was perfect, showing off whatever was necessary in a simple but proper artistic manner, never losing touch. And this matched well with the action in the movie. The sword battles were far more fun to watch than the battles in Seven Samurai, and Nakadai's skills were incredible. The shot where he slowly walks through an attacking gang killing everyone in one swift slice was incredible.
The acting was wonderful as well. Nakadai got into character very easily, playing someone who was downright secretly nuts. I felt uncomfortable looking at his face when he did that. And one of my favorite scenes comes after many shots of him smiling after a kill, when he sees Toshiro Mifune slaying his teammates and he's scared s***less.
And another thing I noticed is how much darker this movie was from the samurai movie's I've seen. Without any dialogue to examine it, the film uses Nakadai's faces to show how deep the psychological scars are going.
If I had to fault the movie for anything, it's for the complexity. I love complex movies, but this isn't the same thing as Tarkovsky's experiemental film, The Mirror. It's not a movie built for complexity, which means there's nothing to justify the fact that the movie is hard to follow.
Despite that problem, I believe Sword of Doom is one of the finest samurai movies out there. Anyone who's into movies should check this out at least once. A dark touch and a twisted story make this movie one of the best.
Recommended for: samurai fans and psycholgical thriller fans.