Two notorious forces in Japanese exploitation cinema before either hit their nadir. A few years later, director Ozawa was responsible for two Streetfighter films and Tomisaburo Wakayama went on to star in the Lone Wolf series. While this film doesn't rise to the questionable levels of either series, it certainly has it's moments.
Ichibei is sent by the Shogun to stop the Dutch from selling rifles to the Satsuma clan in the south. Ichibei stocks up on all his gadgets and bombs and sets out. Along the way he meets up with a cowardly ronin and a female spy who is nearly his match. We also find out he is impervious to viper venom and can turn his sword scabbard into a telescope. Intrigue and action occur as he makes his journey towards the Dutch ship carrying the armaments.
The film is tongue in cheek with obvious nods to the spy thriller and it's rather bloody. We can see glimpses of the future Lone Wolf series as the overweight Tomisaburo Wakayama ably jumps, flips and slices his way thru the action scenes. There's also some pinku style woman torture for those who need this stuff. The direction is planted firmly in Japanese TV action style which sometimes is very good and other times just quickly filmed and sort of sloppy. The music is pure TV action themes and gets quite annoying unless you have an appreciation of it. The main problem with this film is that it moves at a snappy pace for the first 50 minutes and then stalls out in a number of talking samurai in discussion scenes. The last ten minutes pick up as Ichibei finally gets to the Dutch but the fun is diminished. About fifteen minutes of the film has Ichibei pose as a blind masseuse which is sort of fun since Wakayama's brother, Shintaro Katsu was playing Zatoichi at the time. This is the second film Wakayama poked fun at his more successful brother.
Fun with a dull stretch.
