• 獣の剣 (Sword of the Beast)

6/6/23 (Tues)

Gosha Hideo’s 1965 Sword of the Beast is his second feature film and first original piece, working with the same writer as Three Outlaw Samurai. He sticks with the beast image as in the previous title. As per the times, this is again a critique of the shogunate with its unfeeling ethos that requires a suppression of one’s humanity to survive.

The story opens in 1857, when the arrival of the Black Ship four years earlier (referred to in the film) has set in motion events that are about to wreak a momentous transformation in Japan. But the characters don’t know that yet, sensing only vague change in the air. When we meet the low-ranking samurai Gennosuke, he is a fugitive, having killed a clan official who rejected his proposal for democratic reform. He is being pursued by the official’s daughter, who is determined to avenge her father’s death.

All is not as it seems, however. We learn that Gennosuke had been used as a pawn in a political game by a clan member having no intention of altering the system. His betrayal has made him cynical of the samurai code, and he refers to himself as a “wounded beast”. Unwilling to die for the system – “To hell with pride and honor. I’ll run to the ends of the earth” — he escapes to the mountains, where he befriends one of several commoners panning for gold in the hills. Since the shogun lays claim to the entire area, taking the gold for oneself is a capital crime. Gennosuke runs into another couple who are panning for gold on behalf of their clan, hoping for advancement from their low status. He realizes that they are being set up by their clan as well and will be disposed of quickly once they’ve passed on the gold. Betrayal follows betrayal and alliances rapidly shift, until Gennosuke proves the only true samurai among beasts.

Hira Mikijiro is fine in a far more complex character than he played in Gosha’s debut film, and while he doesn’t have the same intensity as a Nakadai or Mifune, he feels particularly real in the chambara scenes, running and waving his sword wildly. Kato Go and Iwashita Shima also do great work as the doomed couple in an all-around strong cast. The sword fights are dynamic, filmed nearly always with the characters moving forward through  narrow rooms and alleys, tall grass, the riverside, and other random spots. For all the twists in the story, the film races by in a trim 90 minutes. I prefer Three Outlaw Samurai for its more straightforward storyline and cynical ending, but Beast is a worthy successor.