Kill!

Kill! (Kiru)
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
Written by Kihachi Okamoto and Akira Murao from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto
1968/Japan
IMDb link
First viewing/Criterion Channel

[box] Genta: [Repeated line] Samurai are no good. See what I mean?[/box]

Brilliantly choreographed action and Tatsuya Nakadai’s acting are the highlights of this somewhat confusing story.

Nakadai plays Genta, a former samurai who abandoned his position out of disillusionment with the life.  He meets up with a farmer who longs to become a samurai.  The two eventually team up to battle hordes of opponents set on them by a corrupt local official.

Both of Okamoto’s films from 1967, The Sword of Doom and Japan’s Longest Day, made my ten favorites list for that year, so I was eager to see this one.  It did not reach those heights in my estimation, mostly because I couldn’t quite follow the multi-character plot.  But, boy, that action!  The protagonists and villains fight with swords, bow and arrow, and guns.  That and Tatsuya Nakadai’s acting are enough to make this worth a watch.  Fabulous score by Masaru Sato.

Trailer – no subtitles but you don’t really need them