Friday, April 16, 2010

Bôhachi bushidô: Poruno jidaigeki aka Bohachi Bushido: Clan of the Forgotten Eight - Teruo Ishii - Japan - (1973)




Plot by Imdb: "Bohachi Bushido is the story of an ex-samurai named Shiro. Believing life and death to be the same hell, he tries to kill himself by jumping into a river. A very hard man to kill, Shiro is revived by members of the Clan of the Forgotten Eight- an organization of men and women who have discarded god, servitude, loyalty, trust, propriety, justice, conscience, and shame. The Forgotten Eight run Japan's cruel sex industry and they recruit Shiro to rid them of their competition. Shiro agrees to work for them, more out of boredom than any real convictions."

Teruo Ishii. Again ? YES ! And we're not done yet with that man! This forgotten master of Japanese deviant cinema does it again in this Pinku / Chambara, with a lot of style. Every shot is carefully framed and the costumes and sets are gorgeous. Mythical actor Tetsuro Tamba (how do you call someone who's being acting in all these movies: "Kwaidan", "The executioner II (with Sonny Chiba)", "Graveyard of Honnor" (the Miike version), "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky"(pure insane Cat III from HK) and some movies from Master Kinji Fukasaku ? I call him mythical.) is perfect in the main role, very low key performance (as his character is a desperate man) but very efficient at the same time. Few psychedelic effects in this one but great combat choreography. I especially liked the "naked women versus the Ninja Master" fight, with is nothing but exploitation in motion and, of course, the last fight of Shiro against 147 opponents. Impressive work by Teruo Ishii, in this very balanced movie, that never goes too far in a way or another, and keep you interested all along. Another classic ! 


Trailer:



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