Movielogr

Rating: 7 stars

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Japan 1860s samurai ronin traitor mother brothel assassination plot black and white

All movies seen on 06/22/2025

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Samurai Assassin (1965)

Directed by Kihachi Okamoto

Drama | Action

Overview

Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.

Length 122 minutes

Actors

Toshirō Mifune | Keiju Kobayashi | Yūnosuke Itō | Michiyo Aratama | Eijirô Tôno | Tatsuyoshi Ehara | Tadao Nakamaru | Kaoru Yachigusa | Haruko Sugimura | Nami Tamura | Shirô Ôtsuji | Yoshio Inaba | Akihiko Hirata | Hideyo Amamoto | Ikio Sawamura | Chôtarô Tôgin | Yasuzô Ogawa | Masaya Nihei | Toshio Kurosawa | Hakuô Matsumoto | Susumu Fujita | Hiroshi Hasegawa | Chûsha Ichikawa | Komazô Ichikawa | Kôji Iwamoto | Nadao Kirino | Naoya Kusakawa | Jun'ichirô Mukai | Takashi Shimura | Yoshifumi Tajima | Mitsugu Terashima | Fujio Tokita | Yasuhisa Tsutsumi | Yurie Hidaka | Kan Hōshō | Nagayo Kita | Ren Yamamoto

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Viewing Notes

Sunday Samurai Theater: a revisit of this epic from Mifune Studios (under the Toho banner). Largely a drama about Niiro (Mifune) and his life that led up to this time where he wants to be accepted as a samurai w/a real income and wife. He will be the assassin of the feudal lord to get recognition. But he’s also suspected a traitor among the conspirators bc of his mysterious upbringing (his father is unknown and therefore he’s considered a child a prostitute).

The pacing is good as every scene adds to the story. And usually it’s another familiar Toho face. For example, Niiro wants to marry the daughter of a nobleman so he goes to see him. He’s portrayed by Takashi Shimura, his only scene in the movie but a great scene. There’s a couple of scenes where we get Hideyo Amamoto relaying his observation during surveillance. Akihiko Hirata pops up a couple times yet has only one be dramatic scene.

The thing that struck me the most is how young everyone appears for a 1965 film. Not sure if it’s the black & white presentation, the dark hair dye, or something else but it was wild to see Amamoto appearing so young two years before his Dr. Who in King Kong Escapes. Shimura looks amazing and younger than he did during his fifties output. Feels like this movie was produced 10 years prior.

I don’t think this has a restored release on BD. It needs it as my DVD looks like crap on my HDTV. Just awful.

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