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In the 1960s, when the Japanese film industry was at the beginning of a fundamental change structure-wise and regarding the stories out on screen, so were the traditional themes, characters and virtues represented by them. However, even the most famous figure of the samurai-genre, Akira Kurosawa, nearly always kept a certain skepticism towards the warrior code, the bushido, and the way it was put into practice, making films such as “Seven Samurai” or “Rashomon” also stories about human weakness and treachery as they are studies about the nature of the bushido, who it kept those with power in their place. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1960s when the tone and the design of the genre would fundamentally change, a reflection of the European version of the western in some way, with directors such as Hideo Gosha delivering their brand of chambara and yakuza films with works like “Three Outlaw Samurai”. Interestingly,...

In the 1960s, when the Japanese film industry was at the beginning of a fundamental change structure-wise and regarding the stories out on screen, so were the traditional themes, characters and virtues represented by them. However, even the most famous figure of the samurai-genre, Akira Kurosawa, nearly always kept a certain skepticism towards the warrior code, the bushido, and the way it was put into practice, making films such as “Seven Samurai” or “Rashomon” also stories about human weakness and treachery as they are studies about the nature of the bushido, who it kept those with power in their place. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1960s when the tone and the design of the genre would fundamentally change, a reflection of the European version of the western in some way, with directors such as Hideo Gosha delivering their brand of chambara and yakuza films with works like “Three Outlaw Samurai”. Interestingly,...

I previously wrote about this film for our On the Hulu Channel series. Looking back on it, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, and found that my perspective on the film hadn’t much changed. It is presented again here, with minor revisions, and new notes on the new Blu-ray transfer.

Man, and you thought the French were ahead of the curveball in depicting 1960s youth culture. That Cruel Story of Youth should exist seems almost second-nature, so forcefully does it emerge from an untapped sense of dissatisfaction and sexual awakening; that it came out in 1960 seems otherworldly. It’s so raw, it’s almost primal. It’s so explicit, it need not show that which it explicates. And as introductions to Nagisa Oshima go, you could hardly ask for better (it was mine, and it being his debut feature makes it doubly fitting).

The film is...

Chicago – Hideo Gosha’s spectacularly entertaining 1964 feature directorial debut, “Three Outlaw Samurai,” is a samurai film for moviegoers who aren’t necessarily fans of the samurai genre. At a running time of 93 minutes, the picture is briskly paced and packed with suspenseful set-pieces, while centering its narrative on a partnership between three men who could easily be dubbed, “Good,” “Bad” and “Ugly.”

Though the film essentially functions as a prequel to Gosha’s Japanese television show of the same name, moviegoers won’t need any familiarity with the material to get immediately caught up in the action. Tadashi Sakai’s in-your-face cinematography often slants to a diagonal angle while closing in on the agonized faces of foes as they fight to the death. When the sword meets flesh, Gosha doesn’t spare the audience of the blood that follows.

Blu-ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Tetsurô Tamba, a veteran actor memorably featured in Masaki Kobayashi’s classic,...