The Sword Of Doom - The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

How can a man wearing a waste paper basket on his noodle be so scary? Easy when he is ready at the drop of a hat (basket) wave his katana, wakizashi, odachi or whatever at you. So it starts of with a bumping off and moves on to bottles of saki being guzzled - hero depressed. Next question is just how deep a voice would you expect said scary boy to have - well very deep in fact think of Barry White but on 60 a day plus - actually I am suprised the other characters don't comment - clearly the mores of Japanese socity allow sword wielding psychopaths to sound like they want - "Sure put a basket on your head" "Yes you look great - and the deep voice is great". Things move on. Toshiro Mifune puts in an appearence but is soon off.The film is about some kind of wierd defence in samuri sword play - more Sake - then lotsa of folk end up brown bread naturally including - hero - his girl friend - the baby and everybody else.

This film is a study of how a great talent, in a body whose controlling mind lacks an equivalent moral and social power of judgement, can get sucked into a downward spiral of evil.The contrasting characters show there is a choice.This is clear especially in a superb fight in the snow in which an assassination attempt against Shimada Toranosuke (Toshiro Mifune) goes wrong because of the latter’s immense moral courage, that underpins his superb swordsmanship.The wide range of worries that surround the evil central character - social, personal, national, professional, of clan and family, point up the complex resonance of this superb film.It is full of arresting images and sequences; but it is not about them, but concerns a deeper range of social and psychological issues.

Sword of Doom is the thrilling and shocking story of Ryunosuke Tsukue played intensely by Tatsuya Nakadai (Harakiri, Ran) who is a wandering samurai who has no qualms for killing defenceless people. This nihilistic film chronicles the different things that happen to him: he gets involved in a duel and viciously murders his opponent, joins an assassination attempt and while all the time descenting further into senseless killing and madness. Japanese super star Toshiro Mifune gets a small yet pivotal role as master swordsman that he encounters (although not in a showdown). Alot of Samurai Films are quite slow-paced yet remain gripping building up the tension slowly, Sword of Doom is the opposite a fast-paced and violent film boasting some of the best sword fights committed to samurai film. The film also boasts brilliant directon from Kihachi Okamoto, impressive music and very good supporting cast. The ending has been criticised as it is abrupt and ambiguous but I felt it was a perfect, unconventional, shocking and leaves you gasping for more. The DVD boasts another top notch transfer from Criterion. A word of warning to those who cannot play multi-region DVDs such as this Region 1 Criterion: Do not buy alternative UK release from the Studio Warrior it has one the worst transfers ever that looks like a terrible VHS quality print and is in letter-boxed format if you do not have multi-region player seek out the region 0 Sword of Doom available on Ebay or Amazon.com

If you want a review of the fim go to IMDb. If you want a review of the Blu-Ray go to Blu-ray.com. I'll provide a small review of this version however; It's not a great cut of the film, but it's the best out there this far (2021). I love the film itself. The fight scene in the snow is worth the price of admission alone. Not a great wealth of extras, but I'm happy to own this-it's one of the best samurai films ever made in my opinion.

This version does not english sub

A classic film about a bloodthirsty lunatic who gets into killing people just for the fun of it. I don't think I've ever seen so much violence in a black-and-white samurai film before, but the story holds up and it is highly entertaining. The camerawork and general photography are superb, and the acting is top drawer. Definitely not for kids!

Vengeance, swords and intensive scenery. This film is the adaptation of a Novel. An amoral samurai and exceptional swordsman kills without emotion any one he meets. When suddenly, through different circumstances the somber world created through his actions starts turning against him. The film beyond the plot is an ode to violence flirting with the dark edge of insanity.

Super fast shipping, brand new, as it said on the description, I’ m very satisfied with this purchase.