One of the traits of the Kyoshiro Nemuri films that I had remembered from my viewings twenty years ago was the Gothic atmosphere. The series contains images that could have been been in a horror film from that period (a Roger Corman or Mario Bava movie). Here, the opening credits play over a tombstone in what looks like a swamp in fog. This location never appears in the film proper, but it is an arresting opening image. In addition, immediately after the credits the viewer is thrown into a shanty town under a wooden bridge at night. A man runs in yelling "murder." People scatter. A group of samurai enter. Their masked leader decapitates a peasant. The other members of his group congratulate the killer. Thus, begins the third Kyoshiro Nemuri film.
In spite of the opening, this entry ranks a little below the last one, Sword of Adventure. The plot meanders as Nemuri gets involved with the shanty town residents and pits himself against the ambitious (and spoiled) illegitimate son of the shogun whose mother is promoting him as his father's successor.
In the course of the film, Nemuri will have to fight a duel with a down on his luck, but fiercely traditional, samurai. The film does make some comparison between this honorable samurai and the arrogant, rich villain, but it could have done more with the character. The duel happens too early and feels almost like an unneeded complication. The film has more than its share of plot threads and fewer might have been more. Also, the villainess (the mother of the shogun's son) needed more screen time to, well, be more villainous.
Overall, this is a good, but not great, entry in the series. The film's opening was the highlight for this viewer.
