Chicago – Hideo Gosha’s spectacularly entertaining 1964 feature directorial debut, “Three Outlaw Samurai,” is a samurai film for moviegoers who aren’t necessarily fans of the samurai genre. At a running time of 93 minutes, the picture is briskly paced and packed with suspenseful set-pieces, while centering its narrative on a partnership between three men who could easily be dubbed, “Good,” “Bad” and “Ugly.”
Though the film essentially functions as a prequel to Gosha’s Japanese television show of the same name, moviegoers won’t need any familiarity with the material to get immediately caught up in the action. Tadashi Sakai’s in-your-face cinematography often slants to a diagonal angle while closing in on the agonized faces of foes as they fight to the death. When the sword meets flesh, Gosha doesn’t spare the audience of the blood that follows.
Blu-ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Tetsurô Tamba, a veteran actor memorably featured in Masaki Kobayashi’s classic,...
Though the film essentially functions as a prequel to Gosha’s Japanese television show of the same name, moviegoers won’t need any familiarity with the material to get immediately caught up in the action. Tadashi Sakai’s in-your-face cinematography often slants to a diagonal angle while closing in on the agonized faces of foes as they fight to the death. When the sword meets flesh, Gosha doesn’t spare the audience of the blood that follows.
Blu-ray Rating: 4.0/5.0
Tetsurô Tamba, a veteran actor memorably featured in Masaki Kobayashi’s classic,...
- 2/28/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Three Outlaw Samurai Directed by Hideo Gosha Written by Kelichi Abe, Eizaburo Shiba, and Hideo Gosha Starring Tetsuro Tamba, Isamu Nagato, Mikijiro Hira, and Mikyuki Kuwano Hideo Gosha's 'Three Outlaw Samurai' is a competently told samurai story that never really reaches levels of brilliance, but manages to remain consistently intriguing and entertaining. Three samurais become caught up in a microscopic class-war uprising that plays out as part siege film and part revenge film. The film begins as a group of peasant men take the magistrate's daughter hostage in an attempt to force a change in the treatment of local farmers. One of the men has written A wandering Ronin named Sakon Shiba (Tetsuro Tamba) happens upon the disturbance and decides to bunk within the hut of the peasants, curious to see what transpires. The magistrate hires his own samurai to resolve the issue, only to find one of the two,...
- 2/12/2012
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
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