Well Deserved Praise

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Takashi Harada's effort is neither a sequel nor a prequel to Teruo Ishii's but renders a nevertheless similar, sometimes parallel storyline. Although one may easily see this as an intrinsic disadvantage and possible turn-off, the film proves to be a major work since the outcome is remarkably different from Ishii's film. Goro Ibuki plays a nihilistic ronin who is bored of his life, Reiko Ike plays a Bohachi operative and nympho, Bin Amatsu plays a Bohachi boss who is ready to sacrifice everything and everyone for his own sake. Even though these main characters make the film sound more like a copy of Ishii's film, the depth characters are depicted proves just the opposite. Furthermore, whereas Ishii often resorts to 'sleaze' and gratuitous female nudity, Harada presents a coherent story without missing both simple and subtle aspects of cinema albeit it is certainly darker and bloodier. While Ishii's film may claim to be the 'porno jidaigeki' mentioned in its title, Harada's film well deserves to have the claim to being the 'film noir jidaigeki'.