The Sword of Doom (1966)

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Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencingschool, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade (imdb)

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Cast and Information

Directed By: Kihachi Okamoto

Written By: Shinobu Hashimoto, Kaizan Nakazato

Starring: Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kei Satô, Kamatari Fujiwara, Kunie Tanaka, Kô Nishimura, Michiyo Aratama, Yûzô Kayama, Tadao Nakamaru, Ichirô Nakatani, Hiroshi Tanaka, Yôko Naito

Genres: Drama, Action

Franchise: Great Bodhisattva Pass

AKAs: 大菩薩峠, Dai-bosatsu tôge

Country: Japan

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The Sword of Doom belongs to 31 collections

1. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 166 stars)

2. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray) (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 20 stars)

3. Best of criticker: Drama (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 18 stars)

4. Best film of top directors (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 15 stars)

5. Samurai (collaborative: moderated by mpowell - 13 stars)

6. Doubling The Canon (collaborative - 13 stars)

7. Cinema Discusso Yearly Consensus (2008) (public: PeaceAnarchy - 10 stars)

8. Essential Samurai Films (collaborative: moderated by TheDenizen - 7 stars)

9. Nihilism (collaborative - 6 stars)

10. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)

11. Great Japanese Films (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika - 4 stars)

12. Sword Fight (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 3 stars)

13. Cinemascope (collaborative - 3 stars)

14. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray and 4K) (public: PepeCamello - 3 stars)

15. High contrast black and white cinematography (collaborative: moderated by juandr - 2 stars)

16. DtC Doubling the Canon 2022 Nominees (collaborative: moderated by lineuphere - 2 stars)

17. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)

18. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)

19. Chanbara (public: PerryStroika - 1 star)

20. The Greatest Movies of All Time - Filmweb's Alternative Top 500 (public: Hadleyreis - 1 star)

21. To Download (collaborative: moderated by ForrestQ)

22. Jidaigeki (collaborative: moderated by tirefeet)

23. Available on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)

24. Foreign films on Divicast (collaborative: moderated by Dunstan-xxx)

25. zae's DVDs & Blurays (public: zae)

26. My Home Video Library (public: joseywales)

27. Lucbapt (public: lucbapt)

28. Esplanade to see (public: Malcym)

29. Films Dunstan Owns (public: Dunstan-xxx)

30. My DVDs/Blu-Rays (public: andyglover)

31. 1960s Mile High Club (public: Dunstan-xxx)

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All Ratings | With Reviews

Order by:

TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
4	Spunkie	87 _98th
A rare psychological study disguised as a samurai movie. Nakadai gives one the most passionate performances I've ever seen. His character possibly suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
3	TheDenizen	95 _98th
Ryunosuke is the most amoral of all screen samurai. Devastating emotional power.
3	Nroo	86 _94th
A bleak and striking horror-tinged samurai film. It's incomplete form ends up being thematically appropriate as the narrative breaks apart in its descent into eternal, nihilistic violence.
2	MartinTeller	78 _63rd
The story is lacking, with too many valleys where nothing much seems to happen. Occasionally too complicated to follow, though it all makes sense by the ending... which is a rather unsatisfying cliffhanger for future installments that were never to arrive. There are three scenes of a single person taking on a multitude of enemies and all of them are frankly dull. But there's some marvelous cinematography here, the acting is solid, and the score is nice.
2	iqcumber	85 _87th
CUSHION THROW!
2	Nathan S	4 _74th
It's not the most succinctly plotted film, in fact it's nigh incomprehensible in all but the broadest strokes, and somehow simultaneously incomplete and overlong, but the appeal here is atmosphere. The total absence of redemption is remarkable, that its focus is a character who would be the villain in any other chanbara, a murderer afforded little pathology, only that he is a crystalline incarnation of categorical evil, played methodically by Tatsuya Nakadai in one of his most memorable roles.
2	PeaceAnarchy	75 _44th
Enjoyable and well shot, though it doesn't always work. My biggest problem with it is that, while the main story is easy enough to follow, there are a lot of supporting characters in the film whose roles are very difficult to sort out. Everything jumps around a bit too much and it makes it hard to really hang on to any character or story arc other than Ryunosuke, and his motivations are diminished when you have to work to remember who he's interacting with. The fight scenes are great, if long th
2	joseywales	94 _99th
Unrelenting violence matched with wonderful cinematography make this truly something to behold for samurai fans. Nakadai's performance as Ryunosuke is perhaps one of the most evil in cinema.
2	JooJoo	5 _80th
I will watch this movie again and again almost entirely for Nakadai's character - that look of complete bliss after his slayings is the thing of nightmares.
2	UniqueName	100 _99th
Absolutely astonishing cinematography and pacing, I don't care if the movie was supposed to have a sequel or not.. as it stands its a masterpiece. Ryunosuke is an unapologetic psycho samurai gone mad, and the viewer will spiral into madness with him.. masterful.
2	KAH	3 _74th
Could perhaps have done without the storyline involving the girl Omatsu, but this is otherwise a bleak and nihilistic (which almost always equals good) movie with a chilling performance by Nakadai. A film that doesn't end, but terminates.
2	CRAYON	88 _77th
The lead character is wonderfully acted and truly menacing. I also felt that the way he fought, and killed really did a great job to reflect his personality. Too bad about the ending, considering the sequels never got made.
2	hotsake	81 _94th
Great performances, great directing, great sound design. I enjoyed the side stories and I loved Toshirô Mifune in his role even if it was much smaller than I would've liked as he is one of my all time favorite actors. I usually find Tatsuya Nakadai to be hit or miss but here he was amazing, second best performance I've ever seen him in. The one main difference in opinion I have with most reviewers whether or not they liked the film is the fact that I didn't find Ryunosuke very villainous... [Full Review]
1	yilb	90 _98th
The best samurai movie i've ever seen. Engaging, thoughtful, violent, great looking.
1	Moribunny	55 _44th
Silly and inspired, often (e.g. the finale) at the same time. The focus on the villain is inspired, as he is the most interesting character. Nakadai portrays him with iconic venom and is almost unrecognizable from his goody-two-shoes past as Kaji in Kobayashi's Human Condition. Much of the script, however, is pretty dumb, features the most misogynistic characterization at least since Rashomon, and a hoard of inexplicably suicidal male ones. Masterful directing and cinematography keep it afloat.
1	Derekstar	80 _68th
I'll be honest. There are moments of total badassery and stunning cinematography. The descent into madness, if you can call it that, is pretty facinating. Scene to scene, moment to moment, the film is very good. But on a basic level I found the plot hard to follow. Especially the second and third acts. It got to the point where there were fight scenes and I couldn't figure out why. But don't get me wrong. The movie is still good, and there are enough great scenes to make it worthwhile.
1	CinematicESP	89 _83rd
Pretty damn awesome.
1	WoozyB	100 _98th
Sword of Doom is uncompromisingly messed up.
1	fenixdown	83 _86th
A twisted movie dealing mostly with betrayal and revenge. The most over-the-top ending I've seen in a long time.
1	glumpy_99	83 _67th
Contained and controlled samurai epic spends too much time “world building” for the trilogy that never was, but Okamoto’s dread-tinged moments of confrontation and pre-confrontation, and anchor work by Nakadai who should be in the pantheon of sinister antagonists, make this never less than compelling, even as the narrative side alleys threaten to break the tension. Gorgeous cinematography abounds, with perhaps one of the most darkly funny uses of phallic imagery early in the piece!
1	Paxton	80 _87th
This is no match. It's a duel!

Average Percentile 70.39% from 551 Ratings