You would think that being a fan of westerns I'd be all in on a classic Samurai flic but I have to tell you that even the decent ones, such as this mid 1950s offering from director Hiroshi Inagaki, that feature stunningly lush cinematography and impressively staged battle and sword fight scenes, strike me as stiff and melodramatic to the point of caricature, with the actors doing way too much screaming, weeping, and snarling. I much prefer the American westerns of this time period with their more realistic studies of damaged psyches to this hyperbolic stuff. I could also do with less sexism...the women in this movie are divided between submissive saints and deceitful, lustful ho's...and a bit of explication would be nice for those of us who haven't boned up on our 17th century Japanese history and are completely in the dark as to who is fighting who and why. Needless to say I was not in for the next two legs of the trilogy. Give it a C plus.
Review of Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
