A gang
of misfits, plus the innkeeper and his daughter, find themselves holed
up inside an inn as they wait to transport smuggled goods. Everything
becomes complicated when a moody warrior shows up to buy his wife out
of prostitution with stolen money.
Long
considered one of the truly great Japanese Samurai Films [and the obvious
uncredited inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Hateful Eight],
this film from director Kobayashi is a timeless masterpiece. Filmed in
stark black & white, the mood is established immediately. The intimacy
of the characters is accentuated by the restriction of the location, but
that also accelerates the fear and hate which permeates the film as the
smugglers know their 'safe' world is on the brink of invasion from a new
band of government magistrates.
Director
Masaki Kobayashi also helmed the 1967 Chambara movie SAMURAI
REBELLIONand won International notoriety for his award winning
KWAIDAN
in 1965. Mr Kobayashi died from a heart attack in October 1996 at age
80. The lead actor Tatsuya Nakadai is one of Japan's most popular performers,
appearing in 150+ films since his bit part in Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN
SAMURAI in 1954. He made numerous movies with the master including
KAGEMUSHA
(Shadow Warrior) and RAN
(Rebellion) [as well as classics like HACHIKO,
the aforementioned SAMURAI
REBELLION and SWORD
OF DOOM] but genre fans will always remember him for the 1993
remake of LONE
WOLF AND CHILD: THE FINAL CONFLICT. Mr Nakadai is still acting
today at age 87.
A
Japanese film with optional ON/OFF English subtitles; widescreen (16:9),
uncut (123 minutes) in DVD encoded for ALL REGION NTSC,
playable on any American DVD machine.