Sword of the Beast (1965)

Directed by Hideo Gosha. Starring Mikijiro Hira, Gô Katô, Kantaro Suga, Toshie Kimura, Takeshi Katô, Shima Iwashita, Yôko Mihara, Shôbun Inoue.

On the run after being tricked into killing a lord, fugitive samurai Hira befriends another samurai (Katô) and plots to steal gold belonging to a shogun; meanwhile, the slain lord’s daughter (Kimura) and her fiancé (Suga) are in pursuit on a vendetta against the assassin. Extravagant (if sometimes preposterous) action scenes brought to punchy, vivid life by Gosha’s melodramatic direction. Good, hard-edged entertainment, with a moral attached to the sharp cynicism. The more contemporary touches in Toshiaki Tsushima’s score can be off-putting.

72/100