Movielogr

Daredevil in the Castle (1961)

Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki

Action | Adventure | War

Overview

During the raging war between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa clans, the swordsman Mohei (whose family has been completely decimated) is recruited by Toyotomi to overcome the seat of power, Osaka Castle. Mohei’s daredevil skills will be put to severe tests.

Length 95 minutes

Actors

Toshirō Mifune | Kyôko Kagawa | Yuriko Hoshi | Yoshiko Kuga | Isuzu Yamada | Yōsuke Natsuki | Jun Tazaki | Akihiko Hirata | Takashi Shimura | Tadao Nakamaru | Tetsurō Tamba | Danko Ichikawa | Koedako Kuroiwa | Ryôsuke Kagawa | Yû Fujiki | Seizaburô Kawazu | Susumu Fujita | Hanshiro Iwai | Sachio Sakai | Yoshio Kosugi | Kichijirô Ueda | Ren Yamamoto | Chieko Nakakita | Haruko Tôgô | Hideyo Amamoto | Jun'ichirô Mukai | Shirô Tsuchiya | Akira Tani | Shin Ôtomo | Katsumi Tezuka | Senkichi Ômura | Ikio Sawamura | Kôji Uno | Yasuhisa Tsutsumi | Haruo Nakajima | Hans Horneff | Bill Bassman | Toshiko Nakano | Osman Yusuf | Shigeki Ishida | Takuzô Kumagai | Ryû Kuze | Tadashi Okabe | Yû Sekita | Seiji Ikeda

Viewing History (seen 3 times)

Date ViewedDeviceFormatSourceRating
12/06/2021TVBroadcastTV7 stars
12/02/2019ComputerBroadcastOther7 stars
06/18/2018ComputerBroadcastOther7 stars
 

Viewing Notes

It’s Yuriko Hoshi week at DKUTV so every night is a double feature of her films celebrating what would’ve been her 76th birthday. Last year when she passed away they led with this movie, which I watched then. So DKU decided to lead with it again and I wanted to revisit bc I dug it even if Yuriko has a very small part. It’s really Toshiro Mifune’s film playing a character that is a spiritual brother to his Kikuchiyo from Seven Samurai.

Mohei the Demon (Mifune) is a country bumpkin w/fighting skills that returns to Osaka to get involved with the Toyotomi Clan war against Osaka Castle. He’s hot-tempered and rambunctious. He befriends a ninja and falls in love with the woman who saved him and sent him on a quest inside the castle. Pretty good hero journey.

As I’ve mentioned before, this is another Toho flick that needs a restoration and domestic release. Has a huge Toho cast, rousing Akira Ifukube score and Tsuburaya special effects. I’d love to own the score!

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