Disguised as a beggar monk, Ryunosuke is harassed along the road by the rowdy members of a country dojo or fencing school malingering outside their fencing hall. The third film in the Satan's Sword trilogy.
Acting
Raizō Ichikawa's empty eyes will haunt your dreams.
Direction
Mori turns sword fights into spiritual crucibles.
Cinematography
Shadow work that would make Kurosawa jealous.
Director
Kazuo Mori
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The trilogy adapts Kaizan Nakazato's serial novel, which ran 1,000+ installments from 1913-1941 — Japanese pulp culture's original slow-burn.
Raizō Ichikawa died at 37, just four years after this film — making his hollow-eyed performance unintentionally prophetic.
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