Second in director Yamada Yoji’s samurai trilogy, it tells the story of a young samurai, Katagiri Munezo, tasked with killing a prisoner who had escaped from prison.

Prior to this, the young samurai had rescued a married woman from an unhappy marriage. She was a former servant of his family. Social conventions forced him to ask the woman to return to her father’s home as he could not keep her by his side.

Upon receiving his order to kill this renegade samurai, Munezo visited his sword master for advice as he know he is not so skillful as this renegade who were also trained by his teacher.

On the night before he was to confront the escaped prisoner he was visited by the prisoner’s wife who offered her body if he’d spare her husband’s life. Munezo turned her down and she told him she’d visit his superior who’d ordered the death of her husband. Munezo tried to persuade her from this course of action as he knows this officer cannot be trusted to keep his word.

In the duel he wounded the renegade who was then shot dead by a hidden musketeer. The renegade’s wife committed suicide in despair and Munezo was filled with anguish. He decided to seek revenge for the dead renegade and his wife and redeem their honour by assassinating the superior officer. This is where the title of the movie is revealed.

Munezo resigned his position after the deed and went to look for the woman he loved and live the life of a commoner.
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Cast:
Nagase Masatoshi as Samurai Katagiri Munezo
Matsu Takako

Rating: 3.5/5
Don’t expect lots of sword play as this is not the director’s style nor is he telling a sword flick story.
It does have a happy ending and I’m a sucker for that.

Third in director Yamada Yoji’s samurai trilogy, it tells the story of a low ranked samurai, Shinnojo, serving as his liege lord’s food taster. Although he gets by on his annual allowance of 30 kokus, he dreams of leaving his job and starting his own sword training dojo. He is supported in his aspiration by his lovely wife. Kayo.

One day, he fell ill while tasting an out-of-season shellfish and as a result of the poisoning he became blind despite recovering.
Despondent and in despair over how to survive and feed his family he wanted to end his life.

Kayo was forced by his relatives to appeal to his Senior Duty Officer to help her husband. He agreed but the price was high and he continued to take advantage of her by threatening to tell her husband.

Eventually, rumours reached him and he found out what hi wife was doing and he divorced her. Angry and humiliated he took up his sword training and reached an even higher plateau of achievement in being able to sense his opponent’s movement without seeing. His sword master taught him to fight with no thoughts of surviving, thereby attaining a psychological edge over his opponent.

He was to challenge this senior officer to a duel and he defeated him. In humiliation, the officer later ended his own life but never told of who had so handily defeated him, a senior disciple of a famous master.

Not to spoil the story for you, there is a happy ending here. Yes, I’m a sucker for happy endings.
More info…….

Cast:
Kimura Takuya as retainer Mimura Shinnojo
Dan Rei as wife Kayo

Rating: 4/5
Don’t expect lots of sword fighting as that’s not the director’s focus which is on story telling based on the main characters. He’d rather dwell on their emotions than on the external appeal of swordsmanship.
But, the fight when it happens is exciting as we are rooting for the young blinded samurai defending his honour.