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Samurai Assassin

The last time I watched one of Kihachi Okamoto's movies the highly touted Sword of Doom I was very impressed and many people believe that Samurai Assassin, which was made a year prior to Sword of Doom was a stepping stone to that great movie. Not too sure if I follow that thought as they are very different movies and I wouldn't say those who liked the latter would also like Samurai Assassin

The movie follows a two-week period that would change Japan forever, February 17 through to March 3rd 1860 in what historians call the Sakurada Gate Incident.

As the movie tells a group of assassins plan to kill a high ranking Tokugawa official and they in list the services of Niiro (Toshiro Mifune) who is a master swordsman who just has had the wrong end of the lucky stick. Niiro only takes up the job in the hope that by killing this official he will gain fame and respect thus allowing him a high position within a Clan.

There is a real in depth story line here and it is more a talky Samurai flick than say sword of doom, which was just chaos gone mad. As the story develops we learn more and more about our main character Niiro and how he came to be where he is and the shocking truth about his real identity, which was once of the biggest twists I have seen in a movie.

The gang of assassins believe there is a traitor amongst them and all eyes point to Niiro and another samurai who although the complete opposite from Niiro has become good friends with.

I love the way Okamoto has included a voice over at certain times to give it an almost documentary feel and the scenery is breath taking indeed.

Of course the movie climaxes at the Sakurada gate where the snow falls and Niiro is dammed on completing his work and cementing his place in history, the irony is that his actions will see the end of the samurai and is dream of a high position is nothing more than a deluded dream.

As I mentioned at the beginning this is a talky talky movie with action aplenty at the end but it's more of a story-told. Having said all that I really enjoyed watching it and there wasn't a time when I wasn't glued to the screen watching Mifune effortlessly cruise through yet another classic role. Compared with Sword of Doom I prefer this one as it had more depth and the cinematography in my opinion was more precise.




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