Rent The Sword of Doom (1966)
3.9 of 5 from 107 ratings
2h 0min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune star in this story of a wandering samurai who exists in a maelstrom of violence. A gifted swordsman plying his craft during the turbulent final days of shogunate rule in Japan, Ryunosuke (Nakadai) kills without remorse or mercy. It is a way of life that ultimately leads to madness. Kihachi Okamoto's swordplay classic is the thrilling tale of a man who chooses to devote his life to evil.
- Actors:
- Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Yûzô Kayama, Yôko Naitô, Tadao Nakamaru, Kei Satô, Kô Nishimura, Ichirô Nakatani, Kunie Tanaka, Takamaru Sasaki, Ryôsuke Kagawa, Kamatari Fujiwara, Hideyo Amamoto, Akio Miyabe, Yasuzô Ogawa, Kyôji Hayakawa, Atsuko Kawaguchi, Shôji Ôki, Hiroshi Hasegawa, Kanzô Uni
- Directors:
- Kihachi Okamoto
- Producers:
- Sanezumi Fujimoto, Kaneharu Minamizato, Masayuki Satô
- Writers:
- Shinobu Hashimoto, Kaizan Nakazato
- Aka:
- Dai-bosatsu tôge
- Studio:
- Shadow Warrior
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama
- Countries:
- Japan
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 04/12/2017
- Run Time:
- 121 minutes
- Languages:
- Japanese LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.35:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- New Audio Commentary Featuring Film Historian Stephen Prince
- Trailer
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Reviews (1) of The Sword of Doom
All Blade, No Soul - The Sword of Doom review by griggs
Cold as the blade at its centre. The Sword of Doom opens with an old man on a mountain praying for death, and Tsukue turning up to oblige. No mercy framing, no music swell, no hesitation. Just a man doing the one thing he seems built to do.
Nakadai’s Tsukue isn’t quite a villain who chooses evil. He’s more like something set loose: a man who follows the code so far past sanity that what’s left barely counts as human. He doesn’t look at people; he looks through them.
Mifune is the moral counterweight — “the sword is the soul” — and the horror is that Tsukue hasn’t really betrayed that idea. He’s emptied himself into it.
Yes, it sprawls, the loose threads show, and the ending doesn’t so much resolve as stop. But that freeze-frame earns its place. By then, the voices are piling up, the violence has turned inward, and a neat ending would be a lie.
If Kurosawa is the John Ford of samurai cinema, Okamoto is closer to Sam Fuller: harsher, sharper, and absolutely not here to tuck you in.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.