JosephDaley 26 Posted August 26, 2016 A) We need some Jidaigeki in The Canon, and more Foreign language efforts in general. Â Our Pop Culture is obsessed with Anti-heroes, it's been that way since before Alan Moore and Frank Miller took the Caped Crusader and re-contextualized him as The Dark Knight in the 1980's, and it'll be that way for richer or poorer for some time I suppose. Jesse James, Tony Soprano, Heisenberg, Darth Vader, and Kylo Ren. and so many innumerable others that it's hard to count. Ryunosuke however, is perhaps the Mack Daddy of the Bad- the Worst of the Worst. This amoral Samurai destroys everything by existing- he longs to corrupt and maim the world as he cackles and slaughters his way through it. Â Tatsuya Nakadai brings Ryunosuke to effortlessly chilling life here, and the finale of this movie is the ultimate Joker origin story come to vividly maniacal life. I would love to see this movie brought before The Canon and to see how we the viewers come down on it, I wouldn't be surprised if many people feel differently towards this movie than I do, it's not the easy sell that the epic and grand 'Seven Samurai' is, or the vibrantly relevant but little seen 'Three Outlaw Samurai' (Which is one of the inspirations for Star Wars Episode VIII) is. But I see so much of this movie reflected in the storytelling of today, so much of Ryunosuke and his Sword of Doom in every Anti-hero story we celebrate or tell anew. Share this post Link to post
