Also Directed by Gorô Kadono
After the massacre of Christians at Shimabara, followers of Amakusa Shiro band together in a plot to overthrow the shogunate in order to exact revenge on the Tokugawa. At the same time there is a succession dispute in the Kuroda clan, as one faction tried to usurp the rightful heir and take over the honored clan. Before his untimely death, the lord of the Kuroda bestowed “Nihongo”, a magnificent spear, on his finest warrior, which ultimately brings him into contact with two of Japan’s most famous historical figures, Yagyu Jubei and Miyamoto Musashi. Can the three masters of martial art join forces to defeat their enemies and save the nation?
A samurai rescues a mischievous tanuki from hunters and sets it free. When the samurai's wastrel son hatches a plot to kill his father for his fortune, the magical tanuki is determined to protect its rescuer.
1956 Japanese film, originally released in two parts.
A painter leaves his family to paint the homes of his rich clients. A lonely, ruthless samurai falls in love with the painter's wife and rapes her. He later murders the painter and his servants. From the afterlife, the painter's ghost seeks revenge on the samurai, and saves his wife and newborn child.
The film begins strongly, with an atmospheric opening sequence, predating John Carpenter's The Fog by two decades, of shuffling ghost-like zombies, blood streaming from their faces, rising from the waves to drag the workers of a deserted shipyard,swirling with dry ice, to their doom. The ghost's main target however is the village kingpin, and employer of the local diving girls, Satomura (played by Juzaburo Akechi). When his wife and youngest daughter are abducted, it is up to his remaining daughter Nami (Banri) and her ama companions to get to the bottom of the mystery, which again revolves around sunken treasure and a gang of swarthy crooks.
