Isamu Nagato is a ronin, a masterless samurai, always on the lookout for a job that never comes. He's a funny looking fellow. He takes part in challenges for money, which is not honorable, but what can you do, especially when you win? He also 'interferes' when people are squabbling. He doesn't see the need for unpleasantness. When he enters a competition and eventually draws with Tetsurô Tanba, who is a glowering fellow and equally skilled. Tanba is a loner and openly mercenary: so much to murder a commoner, so much to murder a samurai, so much to break through a border guard. You know these two are going to meet again, and there will be much blood shed.
But that's not really the point of this movie. It's about ordinary people with ordinary problems like love and money. Nagato's character is shown immediately, but his back story and his current state of employment and his relationship with Shima Iwashita flesh him out. She has a story too, and so does Tanba. And the three of them make up a very interesting tale.
