1968
Written and Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
Starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Etsushi Takahashi
It's been argued in these pages before, and probably will be again, that the Japanese samurai films from the 1960's are a horrifically neglected piece of modern cinema: with that in mind, here's another one that's relentlessly entertaining, hellishly clever and ten times prettier than the last fifteen non-Chris Doyle movies anybody has seen. As was the trend in those astonishingly creative times, it's got a Machiavellean plot, about thirty-six more subplots than it really needs, a group of actors flipping their own typecasting up in the air and swords, death and dismemberment galore.
Only two years earlier, Okamoto had dipped into the world of samurai's with the irreverent Sword of Doom, a bitter, hardened look at what becomes of these film characters when they actually bear moral consequence for the nonstop bloodshed they bring about. As in that film, Okamoto's star in Kill! is the incredible Tatsuya Nakadai--and it's his willingness to be so incredibly unattractive that makes for such a great movie. See, Kill!, while following one of the eleven standard plots of a samurai film (this being #9, wherein nice revolutionaries are betrayed by an evil superior) chooses to beef up every single characters role for the purposes of, surprisingly, making them realistic human beings. It's the style most commonly used for the purposes of drama: a coming of age story for one, a love story for another, and a redemption story for our lead. Watching Okamoto try to balance all of their characters arcs in two hours isn't just enjoying, but instructive as well: one could only wish that the recent spate of ensemble filmmakers had paid more attention to this simple gem. Without any sense of confusion, the movie leaps from room to room, field to sandstorm, showcasing a group of the finest actors at their best as they utilize a simple genre piece to examine nearly every aspect of adult life in a twisted time period, a time when the cultured violence of a sword was replaced by the faceless cruelty of the gun.
As it's so cynically put near the end of the film, when the cultured demon of the villain looks upon the bruised, filthy beggar who has destroyed his flawless plan, "You couldn't have done all of this."--but oh yes, that's Okamoto's point. Anybody can kill somebody, and dressing them up in robes and topknots doesn't make it any cleaner. Okamoto had survived being a member of "the generation where most of them got killed," the group of young Japanese men drafted late in World War II, and all of his films have always given far more weight to the mortality of slaughter--and Kill! is no different. While it's certainly one of the more demanding works of the genre, it's also one of it's classics.
This time, we at the Factual are sad to say it: They don't make 'em like this anymore.
-Tucker Stone, 2006
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