Tuesday 21 June 2011

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 40: Sword of Doom (1966) (4 STARS)






Ryunosuke is a sociopathic samurai without compassion or scruples. When he is scheduled for an exhibition match at his fencing school, the wife of his opponent begs Ryunosuke to throw the match, offering her own virtue in trade. Ryunosuke accepts her offer, but kills her husband in the match. Over time, Ryunosuke is pursued by the brother of the man he killed. The brother trains with the master fencer Shimada. In the meantime, however, Ryunosuke earns the enmity of the band of assassins he runs with, and it becomes a question of who shall face him in final conflict.


As I said before when I wargame a period in history I try and get some eye candy through movies of the period, some are easier to find than others and some period movies are less accurate than others.This is a great movie but a bloody grim movie about our anti-hero Ryunosuke who kills a man in a competition duel after his opponent learns that Ryunosuke slept with his wife, he kills more of his friends and escapes the town with his opponents ex-wife (who he treats terribly) joins a semi official police force that carry out murders ans assassinations for the Tokugawa Shogunate. 


The younger brother of the man killed in the duel at the beginning trains to fight our anti-hero and challenges him to a duel but in the meantime Ryunosuke confidence is shattered by a botched assassination attempd on a master swordsman Shimada Toranosuke (Toshire Mifune in an amazing scene of swordplay) and an attempt by his mistress to kill him. Anyway after all this and other things he rejoins the assassins and ends up in a haunted room and starts to see the ghosts of all his victims and starts lashing out at the rest of the assassins and we get 7 mins of amazing sword fighting that never really ends (if you get a chance to see it you will understand), there were supposed to be 2 more movies but they never happened. There is nothing to like about Ryonosuke at all and a grim, bleak movie awaits you but a magnificent movie for characters and action to watch especially if you love the Samurai period.

53 comments:

  1. Impressive review! Never saw or heard about this classic samurai film.

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  2. Sounds like a really interesting movie. I too have to get associated eye candy when gaming a period to get into the swing of things, and movies are the best. I also need theme/period music to paint and game to!

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  3. Unscrupulous to take both like that.

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  4. This looks awesome, cant wait to check it out ;D

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  5. Sounds very interesting! I'll start collecting Samurai movies next year when I start my Samurai project as like you I immerse myself in the period I'm painting.

    Christopher

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  6. It seems definitely worth a look. I'll watch it as soon as possible!
    Many thanks for the review :)

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  7. Sounds cool, I wouldn't even know where to look to watch it though.

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  8. Sounds like a fantastic anti-hero movie.

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  9. This is indeed a great samurai film.

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  10. I love samurai films, i'll check this out now.

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  11. Great review, love old school samurai films like works by Akira Kurosawa so I'll check this out

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  12. a sociopathic samurai? Now who wouldn't like to watch something like that :))

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  13. Sounds like a good one, thanks for the nod :)

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  14. Oh I love a good samurai movie! I will be sure to check this one out! :D

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  15. The cover artwork looks familiar on this. I think I have the high res black and white photo that it comes from. I'll check it out, loved the old JP films, especially by Akira Kurosawa.

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  16. That immersion makes sense, going deep into a subject to be sure we understand it and don't miss anything.

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  17. Tom Cruise isn't in this? I can't watch it, just cant.

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  18. ^wtf??? for that reason only, I AM watching it!!!

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  19. Great review. I never saw this one but definitely will :)

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  20. I can't remember if I've seen this or not. I went on a chambara marathon for a week once and they all blur together for me now.

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  21. Never heard of this one, you can't argue with a title like that can you?

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  22. never heard of this one too.
    obviously can not be found

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  23. I'm not very intro japanese samurai film, but you have awaken my curiosity.

    I will search it.

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  24. I may try to see this....I took your advice and watched the mechanic and really enjoyed it.

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  25. nice post I might check it out

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  26. This looks like it could have some potential for when the old black and white mood hits me.

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  27. Great review Lurker. Thanks for reminding me about this one.

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  28. Eye candy indeed. 1966? Good, no wire work.

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  29. great, post, i like the movie

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  30. Well that's my cup of tea, will be checking it, thanks.

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  31. I wonder where I can find this.

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  32. This movie looks great! I'll have to check it out :)

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  33. Sounds like an epic movie man, got to check this out

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  34. I love the topic and i love movies from this era.. good find man, thanks!

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  35. Ryunosuke seems pretty complex.

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  36. Toshiro Mifune rocks, many nights we consumed too much sake and watched his movies. he has some interesting techniques for drawing a katana.

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  37. well I definitely have to say that your review of this movie has piqued my interest. It might be a bit tough for me to find out here though LOL. One of my absolute favorite movies is Akira Kurasawa's The Seven Samurai. And I would love to take in more films based on this period, and with actual Japanese actors and directors.

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  38. ive never heard of or seen this movie. Even if i could find it though, i doubt id watch it. Im a pussy when it comes to stomaching B&W

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  39. Sounds fascinating, to bad it was never finished through the trilogy. I gotta hope it is as brutal as you make it sound.

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  40. I dig these types of movies.. not sure how this one escaped my sight though..

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  41. Nice review Lurker, big fan of the samurai movies, haven't seen this one but I now intend too.

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  42. Great review, i will read more about it.

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  43. Sounds like I'd like this one Fran, I'll add it to my film list that I've gotta borrow from you.

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  44. Holy crap, you've got a shitton of hits ._.
    I've seen this movie, pretty awesome.
    Followed for the epicness.

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  45. Gotta watch this now, samourais make me wet.

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  46. but can i kill faster than bullets?

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