Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

deng43 someone calls this a detective story, and that is apt. the film reminds me very much of an American detective tale, something hammett might have written, but it is effortlessly translated into another world, one of swords and sake. there is one point, a night shot, when the magistrate has first entered the corrupt town he is to clean up, and the camera catches faces that reek of depravity, hopelessness, vacancy; these are the seedy, misbegotten, down-and-out characters of a low rent street of burst dreams; it is an almost noir shot of the underbelly. for a moment you are in some other movie, a bleaker seemingly more modern place where concrete hems the characters in and no escape exists. it is a very western shot in the value judgments it makes for the viewer. the shot is jarring and you never have to ask again why this place needs to be cleaned up.the main characters come off with a western outlook quite often. the geisha who tracks the magistrate is a regular hell-on-wheels girl who knows about life and has the bit in her teeth - maybe almost a harlow part. the magistrate really lacks the veneration and gravity you will find in any similar Japanese movie that features clans, a hierarchy, bushido, men of status and the formality normally associated with samurai society. the protagonist is a trickster and an irreverent scoffer. it is nearly sam spade looking for lew archer's killer.i found the flic to be a really nice mix of western attitudes and samurai story in a comedic melange that was not in the least bit overdone or offsetting.i give it a seven because i didn't "love" the movie, but i did like it a lot and will watch it again.

edchin2006 Because a film may have some comedic elements it does not make it a comedy or even a funny movie. We often have amusing scenes to "break the tension" in "serious" ventures. This was neither of the above - not a comedy; not a "serious" film.Nor was this a Chambara film. There was swordplay, but the artistry of the blade was missing; and, there was but one scene where steel was drawn.So, we are left with a story of a sheriff who comes to town, and cleans the place up. I mean Samurai. It's your typical Eastern-Western that holds no surprises and our hero never needs to reload his blade.It could be that the collaboration of four of Japan's greatest directors makes this film a bit of this and a bit of that and a lot of disappointment.

Chung Mo Another project from the files of Kurosawa gets completed, this time by master director Kon Ichikawa who co-wrote it with Kurosawa and other directors during an aborted attempt to create an independent film company in the early 1970's.A samurai is sent to be the new magistrate of a very corrupt fiefdom. Never reporting in to his office, the samurai immediately creates the impression that he's about as immoral a samurai as one can be without killing or abusing anyone. He insults the chamberlain and head officials of the fief and spends most of his time gambling and carousing with prostitutes. All the while he's really investigating how the local yakuza are working in league with the lords of the fiefdom. While this is a very amusing film and quite enjoyable for most of it's length, it's not a deep movie. However, the humor is good and the action is well handled. It's a good looking production with one minor drawback. The anticipated sword fight showdown happens (it's a very good scene) but the film then goes on for another twenty minutes so all the loose ends can be tied up. I didn't mind but it felt lop-sided.Recommended.

Killer-40 Remember Koji Yakusho from SHALL WE DANCE, UNAGI (THE EEL), CURE or TAMPOPO? The Japanese box-office star is the new magistrate in a corrupt town who spreads rumours about his negligence and dubiosity only to get rid of all the bad guys he has to face and who underestimate him then completely. Dora-heita is an example for a streetwise and easy living guy with the classic abilities of a samurai - although he is making fun of them. The sword fighting seems to be classic but is hidden in camera movements, cuts and other tricks because Yakusho hasn't got the presence and fighting abilities of a Toshiro Mifune. The film was planned long ago by the four famous directors Kurosawa, Kinoshita, Kobayashi and Ichikawa who formed Yonki-no-kai (The Committee of Four Knights) in 1969 and wrote the script together. Only after three of them had died, Ichikawa could finally make his 74th movie out of their script.