Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent but underrated film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Bloody tale of a Ronin gone mad , entrusting all faith of humanity into an evil sword that he uses to chop down anybody standing in his way. As he treks his path of merciless slayings he gathers allies, enemies, and vengeful spirits along the way: a pair of pilgrims and a compassionate thief, the fornicated wife from a slain husband and a brother seeking revenge, group of masterless samurai strongarming Shogunate officials, and the rival master swordsman whom only swings his sword for justice and honor - contradictory to the main character's beliefs.Typical villainous movie . Simple plot filled with tension and evil deeds, excellent choreographed sword fights. Supreme body count for the era of Japanese Golden Cinema. Original in the killer samurai genre.

The sword is the soul. Study the soul to know the sword. Evil mind, evil sword. - Master Shimada in "The Sword of Doom"There is something about Samurai films from this era that always intrigued me. Behind the brilliance of the swordfighting and martial arts there lies a deep meaning. Based on a long novel and originally supposed to be a 3-part series, Kihachi Okamoto's 1966 Epic "The Sword of Doom" (originally titled "The Pass Of The Great Buddha") is no exception. The story follows a young wandering samurai named Ryunosuke, played by Tatsuya Nakadai, during the final days of Shogunate rule. Ryunosuke is a skilled swordsman but also a sociopath murderer who leaves a trail of bloodshed wherever he goes. The movie opens with a Grandfather and granddaughter on top of a mountain in Japan overlooking a shrine and the beautiful scenery around them. The granddaughter leaves for a moment and when she gets back, she finds her grandfather dead. The man who did it is Ryunosuke, who on his way back to his clan is scheduled for a duel. The wife of the man he will duel begs Ryun to throw the match as he is not as skilled a swordsman. Ryun agrees but in the final seconds after the fight, in self-defense, kills the man with one swift blow as he lunges towards him. This is what sets up the story. The brother of the killed man is out for revenge, though he is informed by his master Shimada (Toshiro Mifune) that he is not yet skilled enough to defeat Ryunosuke and his unorthodox technique. He must find a way to beat him and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Or else he will die. Meanwhile, Ryunosuke's violent past catches up with him and he begins to question his own seemingly unbeatable skill. He is now living with the wife of the man he killed in the match, but their relationship is shaky. This is only the beginning. The story spans over several years and can be seen from many different angles. The granddaughter from the beginning is one of the films strong points. Interestingly enough, I found myself sympathizing with the villain Ryunosuke at times. There was a very subtle human element behind his cold demeanor and evil ways that I could not help but notice. In one of my favorite scenes of the film, Ryunosuke watches in awe while Master Shimada fights off a group of bandits during an ambush, watching the violence unfold as the snow falls softly around them. For the first time in his life , maybe he is vulnerable. Though Toshiro Mifune is in this, he is not the star. Nakadai steals the show with minimal dialogue - just his eyes tell the story of a man with a dark past. The fight scenes are incredibly well-choreographed with beautiful cinematography. The fights themselves are not polished or elegant or romanticized; they are realistic and at times very graphic. The ending sword fight scene is over 7 minutes long and will leave you astounded! It is not simply a "train until you can beat em" movie. There is a lot of depth, interesting characters, great fight scenes, beautiful cinematography. Loved the soundtrack too! The subtitles flowed and seemed genuine, though I will say the story was hard to follow at times as the plots evolved. I highly recommend "The Sword of Doom" to anyone interested in this kind of thing.

Sword of Doom / Daibosatsu Pass is a fundamentally tonal movie about an inhumanly isolated individual, fencing master Ryunosuke Tsukue, an ostracised man who has become an island, or rather a jagged reef, on which he allows people to be dashed. I think it's quite easy to write him down as either an evil or sociopathic man, however I think the film deals with more complex issues.Ryunosuke is brimful of disdain. His hatred for the way people are, of how compromised and unworthy people become in order to fit in, is seen in several places in the film. Indeed Ryunosuke's exile arises out of his refusal to compromise and betray his code of fencing for the greater good. Many see his actions as provocative, but, like his fencing technique, Kogen Ittō-ryū, Ryunosuke is fundamentally passive until pushed. I have read people interpreting Ryunosuke's actions before his duel with Bunnojo Utsuki as designed to provoke his opponent, however in my opinion he was merely acting out of contempt for others' capacity for dishonour; contempt for one woman's easy virtue, and another man's illegal tactic.His worldview reaches perfect expression during his militia's meeting with Lord Kamio, who earns a degree of respect from Ryunosuke, when he honestly and brazenly admits to the audience of hypocritical fanatics he controls, that he is not interested in politics. Serizawa's faction of the Shinsengumi, which Ryunosuke joins, were known as the wolves of Mibu, and are shown in this film as being ambitious agitators operating under an arbitrary flag, with only nominal political pretensions. Incidentally, Serizawa Kamo, and Kondo Isami, both characters in this film, were actual historic leaders of the Shinsen Group.Every killing Ryunosuke performs in the film can be linked to the death wish of his victim. So despite the ease in which he cleaves flesh, I don't see him as an anarchical madman, more an amplifier of negative behaviour, a quasi-religious force.The movie has supernatural elements, too late Ryunosuke begins to realise that his life is filled with rather too many coincidences and that he is being driven mad by his own nihilism and its karmic response. Sword of Doom is a hideous film, with a superb central performance from Tatsuya Nakadai. Watch it with the awe that it deserves.

I won't go on at length about the film, because others have already done so, and well enough.I will add my opinion about the ending, though.Let me begin by saying that I understand the film was intended to be the first part of a trilogy, and so the unresolved ending could easily be attributed to a "cliffhanger" ending that might be resolved in a second film; however, we don't get the rest of that trilogy, so we must contend with the film as a complete work of art.With that in mind, I propose that the unresolved ending of the film - the sudden, freeze-frame ending, still within the throes of an unfinished combat - is meant to suggest this: :::Ryunosuke has actually died at some unknown point during the final sword battle; what we are in the process of observing, then, is Ryunosuke in his own real and private Hell, an afterlife of endless opponents, brutal killings, and constant injuries to his own body, none enough to kill him, but enough to cause him pain and torment:::The reasons I see to accept this idea are several: 1) The inn is now on fire; fire is an easy metaphor for Hell (certainly for Western audiences, but possibly for Eastern ones as well). As to that fire, no one is responding to it directly, as people would tend to do if a well-populated inn was burning. There is no sound or image of commotion, shouts, running for exits, etc., as we usually see during burning-building scenes, even when there is a battle going on. 2) The scene immediately before the final battle is focused on ghosts and hauntings - it begins with Omatsu telling the tale of the courtesan who killed herself in the now-unused room, and quickly proceeds to multiple images of Ryunosuke fighting the ghosts of his own victims.3) The room that Ryunosuke is in, and proceeds to tear apart before the attack of the samurai, becomes almost supernatural - the curtain walls he cuts through are endless, repeating, circling back upon themselves - he cannot escape this room, even by cutting his way through and out. Then, the rooms of the inn he fights his way through become endless, maze-like, and repetitive, with no occupants except the endlessly attacking samurai.4) The final freeze-frame suggests to the audience that there is no logical ending to this scene; indeed, it never ends.So there you have my interpretation of the ending of "Sword of Doom". If you like it and ever quote it, please give me, and this review, the credit!