About 1786 the doings of a demented lord results in many masterless samurai, including Iyemon (Kei Sato) who is used to luxury and cannot adjust to the hand-to-mouth conditions & piecework of umbrella making. Having hired ruffians to make him look like a superior swordsman, he arranges for himself the opportunity of a profitable marriage. He hires the half-blind masseur Takuetsu (Sawamura Sounosuke) to seduce or rape his wife (Kyoko Mikage), so that she can be divorced or killed for adultery. But the masseur takes pity & informs Oiwa of her husband's horrid plot. Assisted by the merchant's daughter he intends to marry, Iyemon disfigures his wife attempting to poison her so he can marry higher. There's a lovingly gruesome sequence as she combs blad patches into her hair, kneeling deformed at her mirror, weeping with bitterness. She eventually cuts her own throat, swearing revenge.
The boozy mercenary of the title, based on the actual historical figure of Naoyuki Ban (1567-1615), ...
Nominated for Golden Berlin Bear.
A samurai kills a blind man who tells him to repay his debts. Because of the samurai's actions his e...
The curse of a jealous woman destroys lovers on the run. Considered a lost film.
A quintessential example of the period "ghost cat" (bakeneko or kaibyo) movie, this was one of at le...
Tanuma Kandayuu is a high class samurai of the house of Nabeshima. He finds a lavish board of Go (a ...
A woman loses her son through an evil conspiracy and commits suicide. Shortly afterwards a ghost cat...
The Lord of Okazaki is killed by his brother-in-law. Although the Lord's widow bears a child, she is...
A film about the Ghost of Okiku that's based on the kabuki play Bancho Sarayashiki.
A power struggle in the fief of Okazaki causes the death of Namiji, a nobleman's daughter. As her fi...
When a nobleman finds a woman to be an obstacle to his growing political influence, he kills her and...
While transporting a bride-to-be in a closed carriage (kago) while during a thunderstorm, a group of...
A master sculptor and his apprentice are trapped in a bad snow storm after finding a special tree fo...
A former retainer to a noble family kills his wife's father when he tries to expose his past crimes....
The treasures of the Aoyamas were buried at the bottom of the sea when a large earthquake occurred y...
Follows the murder of a money-lending masseur by an impoverished samurai. The slain masseur's daught...
Princess Kiyo accidentally injures a local priest, Anchin, while on a hunt. She apologizes, but feel...