1965·Drama·2h 2m
7.1
★
Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
japan
samurai
based on novel or book
based on true story
sword fight
tokyo, japan
ronin
jidaigeki
edo period
19th century
bakumatsu
Trailer
IMDB
N/A
Cast
Toshirō Mifune
Tsuruchiyo Niiro
Keiju Kobayashi
Einosuke Kurihara
Yūnosuke Itō
Kenmotsu Hoshino
Michiyo Aratama
Okiku / Princess Kiku
Eijirō Tōno
Masagorō Kisoya
Tatsuyoshi Ehara
Ichigorō Hayama
Tadao Nakamaru
Shigezo Inada
Kaoru Yachigusa
Mitsu
Haruko Sugimura
Tsuru
Nami Tamura
Yae
Shirō Ōtsuji
Kaname Kojima
Yoshio Inaba
Keijiro Sumita
Crew
Kihachi Okamoto
Director
Shinobu Hashimoto
Screenplay
Masaru Satō
Original Music Composer
Tomoyuki Tanaka
Producer
Michio Yamamoto
Assistant Director
Popular Reviews
7 reviews
Gareth Morgan
10.0★ · 12/31/25
Now, that is how you fucking tell a tragic story and with the badass Mifune, to boot.
I honestly don’t know why this hasn’t got a higher score than 7.4 or that only 2.6K have logged it (on IMDb).
Looks like I’ll be watching Kihachi Okamoto’s films in 2026.
I honestly don’t know why this hasn’t got a higher score than 7.4 or that only 2.6K have logged it (on IMDb).
Looks like I’ll be watching Kihachi Okamoto’s films in 2026.
Now, that is how you fucking tell a tragic story and with the badass Mifune, to boot.
I honestly don’t know why this hasn’t got a higher score than 7.4 or that only 2.6K have logged it (on IMDb).
Looks like I’ll be watching Kihachi Okamoto’s films in 2026.
I honestly don’t know why this hasn’t got a higher score than 7.4 or that only 2.6K have logged it (on IMDb).
Looks like I’ll be watching Kihachi Okamoto’s films in 2026.
alex glifford
8.0★ · 07/30/24
A breathtaking way to end a film
Some incredible fight choreography and super fun and interesting framing and camerawork throughout the entire thing
Unfortunately with Okamoto’s stuff, his dialogue typically seems to be full and by full I mean plenty and by plenty I mean far far too much
So many inconsequential names
So much exposition
So much
And it’s hard to tell what’s important and what isn’t which makes for a pretty confusing watch
I’m fairly sure I picked up on everything I needed to, and didn’t miss much at all, but I’m still unsatisfied due to this baggage I was processing that didn’t seem to lead anywhere except deepen the exposition
Which is good from a world building perspective ig but it’s not the one here
Some things I do wish had a bit more weight, I’m thinking of a particular duel that didn’t seem to have as much of an effect as I thought
That’s as far as my negatives go
They are small but consistent and the overall product suffers as a result unfortunately
But holy moly each ultimatum the characters faced had me SPICED
Quite literally watching these guys play chess fork after fork
It was intense in a really good way
The tension building at the end as well by repeating the sequence from the beginning was simply marvellous
Needless to say I had a great time
I wish it was a bit more concise and this would be one of the best for me
Even The Sword of Doom has its issues in the ‘overly expositional dialogue’ department, but it pulls it off by having the ridiculously well crafted lead character as the complete driving force of the narrative
I won’t go more into that now bc that’s just a whole different film, but I mean to say I’ve seen it work quite well, and so here it was just a bit of a shame
Incredible ending, those final shots will remain forever cemented in my mind
Some incredible fight choreography and super fun and interesting framing and camerawork throughout the entire thing
Unfortunately with Okamoto’s stuff, his dialogue typically seems to be full and by full I mean plenty and by plenty I mean far far too much
So many inconsequential names
So much exposition
So much
And it’s hard to tell what’s important and what isn’t which makes for a pretty confusing watch
I’m fairly sure I picked up on everything I needed to, and didn’t miss much at all, but I’m still unsatisfied due to this baggage I was processing that didn’t seem to lead anywhere except deepen the exposition
Which is good from a world building perspective ig but it’s not the one here
Some things I do wish had a bit more weight, I’m thinking of a particular duel that didn’t seem to have as much of an effect as I thought
That’s as far as my negatives go
They are small but consistent and the overall product suffers as a result unfortunately
But holy moly each ultimatum the characters faced had me SPICED
Quite literally watching these guys play chess fork after fork
It was intense in a really good way
The tension building at the end as well by repeating the sequence from the beginning was simply marvellous
Needless to say I had a great time
I wish it was a bit more concise and this would be one of the best for me
Even The Sword of Doom has its issues in the ‘overly expositional dialogue’ department, but it pulls it off by having the ridiculously well crafted lead character as the complete driving force of the narrative
I won’t go more into that now bc that’s just a whole different film, but I mean to say I’ve seen it work quite well, and so here it was just a bit of a shame
Incredible ending, those final shots will remain forever cemented in my mind
A breathtaking way to end a film
Some incredible fight choreography and super fun and interesting framing and camerawork throughout the entire thing
Unfortunately with Okamoto’s stuff, his dialogue typically seems to be full and by full I mean plenty and by plenty I mean far far too much
So many inconsequential names
So much exposition
So much
And it’s hard to tell what’s important and what isn’t which makes for a pretty confusing watch
I’m fairly sure I picked up on everything I needed to, and didn’t miss much at all, but I’m still unsatisfied due to this baggage I was processing that didn’t seem to lead anywhere except deepen the exposition
Which is good from a world building perspective ig but it’s not the one here
Some things I do wish had a bit more weight, I’m thinking of a particular duel that didn’t seem to have as much of an effect as I thought
That’s as far as my negatives go
They are small but consistent and the overall product suffers as a result unfortunately
But holy moly each ultimatum the characters faced had me SPICED
Quite literally watching these guys play chess fork after fork
It was intense in a really good way
The tension building at the end as well by repeating the sequence from the beginning was simply marvellous
Needless to say I had a great time
I wish it was a bit more concise and this would be one of the best for me
Even The Sword of Doom has its issues in the ‘overly expositional dialogue’ department, but it pulls it off by having the ridiculously well crafted lead character as the complete driving force of the narrative
I won’t go more into that now bc that’s just a whole different film, but I mean to say I’ve seen it work quite well, and so here it was just a bit of a shame
Incredible ending, those final shots will remain forever cemented in my mind
Some incredible fight choreography and super fun and interesting framing and camerawork throughout the entire thing
Unfortunately with Okamoto’s stuff, his dialogue typically seems to be full and by full I mean plenty and by plenty I mean far far too much
So many inconsequential names
So much exposition
So much
And it’s hard to tell what’s important and what isn’t which makes for a pretty confusing watch
I’m fairly sure I picked up on everything I needed to, and didn’t miss much at all, but I’m still unsatisfied due to this baggage I was processing that didn’t seem to lead anywhere except deepen the exposition
Which is good from a world building perspective ig but it’s not the one here
Some things I do wish had a bit more weight, I’m thinking of a particular duel that didn’t seem to have as much of an effect as I thought
That’s as far as my negatives go
They are small but consistent and the overall product suffers as a result unfortunately
But holy moly each ultimatum the characters faced had me SPICED
Quite literally watching these guys play chess fork after fork
It was intense in a really good way
The tension building at the end as well by repeating the sequence from the beginning was simply marvellous
Needless to say I had a great time
I wish it was a bit more concise and this would be one of the best for me
Even The Sword of Doom has its issues in the ‘overly expositional dialogue’ department, but it pulls it off by having the ridiculously well crafted lead character as the complete driving force of the narrative
I won’t go more into that now bc that’s just a whole different film, but I mean to say I’ve seen it work quite well, and so here it was just a bit of a shame
Incredible ending, those final shots will remain forever cemented in my mind
Mathias
6.0★ · 02/23/23
“In order to stay dry, you've got to cross bridges, no matter how dangerous.”Exposition in Japanese film is often more prevalent than in American or European Cinema, but this is just insane 😂. Toshirô Mifune plays the role he plays best: a crazy down-on-his-luck Samurai and he’s great! But the pacing is not and the first half of the film is so exposition heavy and so extremely dull and the pay-off is not good enough to save the movie. The ending is fucking amazing, it’s everything else I’ve got a problem with.
Overall,
It’s too slow to be a good samurai movie but the ending is awesome... So, I recommend watching the last 30 minutes or so 👍🏼
“In order to stay dry, you've got to cross bridges, no matter how dangerous.”Exposition in Japanese film is often more prevalent than in American or European Cinema, but this is just insane 😂. Toshirô Mifune plays the role he plays best: a crazy down-on-his-luck Samurai and he’s great! But the pacing is not and the first half of the film is so exposition heavy and so extremely dull and the pay-off is not good enough to save the movie. The ending is fucking amazing, it’s everything else I’ve got a problem with.
Overall,
It’s too slow to be a good samurai movie but the ending is awesome... So, I recommend watching the last 30 minutes or so 👍🏼
Abinesh
8.0★ · 10/19/25
J
8.0★ · 05/24/25