Although I love samurai movies and movies with Toshiro Mifune, I was very surprised I didn't like this movie all that much. I think it's because the plot is VERY confusing and the final showdown is done so poorly. First, the plot: there are lots of plots and subplots and not all of them are necessary or well developed--particularly the events leading up to the infighting at the end of the movie. Second, the final fight is such a disappointment. Neither the brother nor Mifune get to kill the evil samurai. Almost out of nowhere, the evil faction begins killing each other. Now here is where it gets really dumb---the evil samurai who is a fantastic swordsman kills dozens of men with a single blow. At the same time, he is hit again and again and again YET he continues to fight and kill them. Even when he is covered in blood and falls to the ground, he miraculously arises and kills dozens more!! It seems that after losing several gallons of blood, he is STILL the greatest swordsman! Third, there's just too little Mifune in the film.

The only real plus? I liked the realism of the fighting--lots of blood and limbs flying across the screen. While I am NOT a fan of gratuitous violence, it is silly that many older samurai movies have men being cut in half with huge swords yet there is little, if any, blood.

Through his unconscionable actions against others, a sociopath samurai builds a trail of vendettas that follow him closely.

This film embraces the anti-hero sentiment of the 1960s, as seen in spaghetti westerns and the like. This is violence to a new degree, and a hero we really do not want to stand behind, but cannot help but watch his exploits. This is stylized violence, a kind that was very influential. Notably on Sam Peckinpah, but obviously on future generations such as Quentin Tarantino, as well.

Placing this in the context of the samurai film is not something i am qualified to do. However, of those I have seen, I can certainly say this had far more action and much less ritual than what is often seen (such as in the films of Kurosawa).

This was Tatsuya Nakadai's film. He was an evil samurai (Ryunosuke Tsukue) that would kill at the drop of a hat.

Toshirô Mifune as Toranosuke Shimada had only a small role in the film, but Ryunosuke managed to see him in action and knew not to mess with him.

Ryunosuke killed Hyoma's (Yuzo Kayama) brother after sleeping with his wife. Hyoma was away at school at the time. He went after Ryunosuke, but the movie ended before he had a chance. It had the kind of ending that was used in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. After killing a couple of dozen samurai, Ryunosuke was still fighting, although badly wounded, at the end. Did he make it? I guess director Kihachi Okamoto wants us to guess if there will be a sequel.

The film was typically a very beautifully filmed Japanese artwork, and it seemed to have a lot more blood that I would expect for a film in 1966.