The 70's were a turning point in Japanese Cinema. For the time being, the large, epic, slow-paced, Chambara Films that were popular in the 50's and 60's were replaced by a new breed of Samurai Films that were exploitative, action packed, and very bloody. And while I love the samurai epics of past era's, I have to say, I also love the good old trashy/bloody samurai films of the 70's. Trail of Blood is one of these films.
The first entry in the Mikogami Trilogy tells the story of Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter and master swordsman, who during his travels happens to meet an employee of an inn named Okinu. Okinu is obsessed over by a local Yakuza gang leader named Kyubei, an evil man who tries to force himself upon the defenseless Okinu. Luckily, Jokichi is there and as he stands up for the innkeeper, he simultaneously makes an enemy out of Kyubei. Jokichi and Okinu decide to flee together and eventually end up starting a family in the countryside. Years pass without incident, until one day when Jokichi ventures into town only to be spotted by his enemies. After being kidnapped and tortured, Jokichi returns home to find his wife and child murdered. Infuriated, Jokichi sets out to avenge his family.
Trail of Blood has to be one of the darkest, serious, and utterly brutal films I've seen in awhile. For example, on top of losing his family, the film's protagonist is beaten, tortured, tormented, urinated on, and also loses two of his fingers in a very brutal scene which is not recommended for squeamish viewers. The whole film is full of evil men doing terrible things; attempted rapes, murder, torture, betrayals. Trail of Blood has all these things in spades. Our only hope in this film is that Jokichi will take out as many of these tyrants as possible... and he does... in style, no less.
Although this film has a decent-but familiar-revenge plot, most of the film is filled with wall to wall action. Jokichi is an utterly fierce and no nonsense character. Don't go into this expecting any light-hearted comedic scenes to balance out the mean spiritedness inherit within the film, there aren't any. The film's fight scenes are choreographed well and while I'd describe this film as "bloody", it's still not any where near as bad as the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Blood sprays out intermittently and isn't a constant throughout the film.
Obviously, the film's main focus is action, and because of this the film suffers from a few weaknesses. Little time is paid to character development but this isn't such an unforgivable sin for an action movie. One thing I noticed though, is that during certain battle scenes, it seems that the corpses (that should be)littered throughout the battle field seem to disappear?!?! Yes unfortunately, Trail of Blood does suffer from some poor editing and has some minor continuity issues.
Bottom Line- Trail of Blood has its share of faults, but is still a fun entry into early 70's Chambara.
The first entry in the Mikogami Trilogy tells the story of Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter and master swordsman, who during his travels happens to meet an employee of an inn named Okinu. Okinu is obsessed over by a local Yakuza gang leader named Kyubei, an evil man who tries to force himself upon the defenseless Okinu. Luckily, Jokichi is there and as he stands up for the innkeeper, he simultaneously makes an enemy out of Kyubei. Jokichi and Okinu decide to flee together and eventually end up starting a family in the countryside. Years pass without incident, until one day when Jokichi ventures into town only to be spotted by his enemies. After being kidnapped and tortured, Jokichi returns home to find his wife and child murdered. Infuriated, Jokichi sets out to avenge his family.
Trail of Blood has to be one of the darkest, serious, and utterly brutal films I've seen in awhile. For example, on top of losing his family, the film's protagonist is beaten, tortured, tormented, urinated on, and also loses two of his fingers in a very brutal scene which is not recommended for squeamish viewers. The whole film is full of evil men doing terrible things; attempted rapes, murder, torture, betrayals. Trail of Blood has all these things in spades. Our only hope in this film is that Jokichi will take out as many of these tyrants as possible... and he does... in style, no less.
Although this film has a decent-but familiar-revenge plot, most of the film is filled with wall to wall action. Jokichi is an utterly fierce and no nonsense character. Don't go into this expecting any light-hearted comedic scenes to balance out the mean spiritedness inherit within the film, there aren't any. The film's fight scenes are choreographed well and while I'd describe this film as "bloody", it's still not any where near as bad as the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Blood sprays out intermittently and isn't a constant throughout the film.
Obviously, the film's main focus is action, and because of this the film suffers from a few weaknesses. Little time is paid to character development but this isn't such an unforgivable sin for an action movie. One thing I noticed though, is that during certain battle scenes, it seems that the corpses (that should be)littered throughout the battle field seem to disappear?!?! Yes unfortunately, Trail of Blood does suffer from some poor editing and has some minor continuity issues.
Bottom Line- Trail of Blood has its share of faults, but is still a fun entry into early 70's Chambara.