Monday, April 07, 2008

A SAMURAI GLIMPSE INTO THE INFINITE ABYSS

Ego's comment on the Dynamite Openings and Knockout Endings post served as a reminder of Sword of Doom, one of the greatest samurai movies ever, which also happens to have an incredible, knockout ending. It is probably the best version of the oft-filmed novel (originally serialized in the newspaper) Dai-Bosatsu Toge (The Great Buddha Pass), about a ronin with daunting, superhuman sword skills who also happens to be evil incarnate. Mr. Evil Badass is not without enough of a moral compass to know just how rotten he is however, allowing director Kihachi Okamoto to explore severe existential dread. Tatsuya Nakadai is incredible as the antihero. This summer there will be a Nakadai retrospective at Japan Society and Film Forum at which Nakadai will make an appearance.

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