• 続・宮本武蔵 一乘寺の決斗 (Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple)

1/30/25 (Thurs)

The second film (1955) in Inagaki’s Musashi trilogy. At the end of Part 1, Miyamoto had emerged from three years of intense Buddhist study and begun a journey to parts unknown to devote himself to the way of the samurai. He is still walking as this part opens, heading to a duel for reasons unexplained. His opponent wields a ball-and-chain weapon that he keeps in constant motion, preventing Miyamoto from closing in. This spurs Miyamoto to take a sword in his left hand as well, thus giving rise to his famous two-sword technique. He naturally wins that battle, but is told by a passing priest that his eagerness to kill shows that his soul is still not that of a true samurai.

Later, Miyamoto somehow engages with a well known fencing school, where he disposes quickly of everyone they throw at him. He demands to go face to face with the master. Unfortunately the master, the son of the school’s illustrious founder, is reluctant to go head-to-head with Miyamoto, who (despite having been locked away in an attic for three years) is already widely known for his skill. The students go to attack Miyamoto, but he has slipped away and left a note for the master to post a time and place at a certain bridge for a faceoff.

When Miyamoto goes to the bridge the next day, he runs into his old flame Otsu, who has patiently waited for him for all these years. Their meeting is interrupted by a sudden attack on the samurai by a large group of warriors. Miyamoto manages to escape, and Otsu resolves to find him. She later encounters Akemi, who is also looking for Miyamoto. When they discover they are looking for the same man, sparks fly.

Meanwhile, Miyamoto is challenged by the master’s impatient younger brother, who he makes quick work of. Looking at his brother’s dead body, the master thus has no choice but to avenge the death and take up Miyamoto’s offer of a duel.

At the appointed place, however, the master’s students have preceded the master and rush to ambush Miyamoto, including archers in the hills above. That proves a bad idea, of course. He holds them off by retreating into flooded rice paddies, where the mud throws them off balance and, even with an arrow in his back, allows him to pick them off.

He makes it to dry ground and eventually gets away, but then runs into no other than the master. They finally have their duel. Miyamoto gains the upper hand but, having proved his superiority, refrains from giving the final fatal thrust. He thus shows that he has gained the soul of a samurai.

Exhausted, he falls asleep. He awakens to discover Otsu taking care of him in an idyllic setting. With romance in the air, he tries to make love to her, but – after waiting years for him and pursuing him across the region – she squeals and turns him away. Understandably peeved, he decides at that moment that he no longer wants to have anything to do with flighty women. He then leaves for his next adventure.

That summary eliminates numerous irrelevant subplots and unnecessary people. It doesn’t bother to set up the story properly, starting with the first five minutes – just why is he fighting a duel? – and fails to examine its characters with any real depth, including Miyamoto himself. It seems to be drawing on common knowledge of Miyamoto’s life, but that’s no excuse for shortcuts. Miyamoto has come out of his studies a changed man, and this film is supposed to bring him closer to enlightenment in the real world. That is expressed not when he decides not to kill his beaten opponent, but through ghostly images of the priest and others encouraging him explicitly to be a good samurai. A better filmmaker would have given us the idea through drama without banging us on the head with it. The editing was problematic as well with sudden transitions that cut the story off rather than drive it forward. There’s an unfortunate tilt toward sentimentality throughout, as when Otsu pauses for a sappy musical intro before going into her speech on love. Yuk.

Some characters reappear briefly from the first picture for no clear reason (at least yet), an orphan boy is introduced early on and then quickly forgotten, and a major new character, Sasaki Kojiro (Tsuruta Koji), looks to be key to the plot but remains a simple onlooker throughout. Miyamoto’s childhood friend Matahachi, now played by Sakai Sachio (Mikuni Rentaro was off playing Miyamoto in another film), gets an amusing scene where he pretends to be Sasaki, not realizing that the person he is speaking to is the real Sasaki. But he is otherwise a weak link, both in story and acting, and it’s not even clear whether he is alive at the end of the film. There’s just too much happening with way too many people, as if the director is trying to fill in the time.

The fight scenes are creative, especially the battle in the muddy fields, but the reluctance to show any actual cutting greatly dilutes the impact. The sets still look fake; most of this was clearly filmed in a studio. The lighting was also subdued for a good part of the film, presumably to make it more atmospheric, but it just made it hard to see.

Mifune Toshiro again gets by on his considerable charisma, and Tsuruta, who presumably will appear in the final segment, looks to be an able foe. Others are variable. The women are generally subpar, other than a confident Kogure Michiyo as a top courtesan. Especially irritating is the cloying Yachigusa Kaori as Otsu, not helped by the weakness of the character. She is particularly limp when sparring with Okada Mariko’s Akemi, who at least has spunk. Women overall do not play a big role in the story, which seems a waste. The men are generally sufficient, though in fairness the script doesn’t help.

The film is widely praised, with some reviews rating this the best of the trilogy. To me, it seemed episodic and poorly thought out. I don’t understand the accolades at all. Having come this far, I’ll watch the final part. But I’m not looking forward to it.