The story of Thirteen Assassins begins with a vassal of the Akashi clan committing seppuku in front of a daimyo’s house. As it turns out, it’s in protest to his lord raping and killing a girl and her samurai husband. This scandal is quickly covered up as the Akashi lord happens to be the Shogun’s younger brother. What makes matters worse is that this reckless scoundrel will be soon appointed to a higher political position which could prove to be detrimental for the entire Shogunate. In response to that, a plot is hatched: 13 assassins will undertake the suicide mission to murder him on his way back from Edo.

The movie can be roughly split in two parts. The first hour is purely character-driven, in a anti-establishment style that resembles Masaki Kobayashi and his masterful work in Seppuku and Samurai Rebellion. The last half hour is totally action-oriented as we see the Akashi clan entourage being trapped in a village and fighting to protect their lord, at which point one could be forgiven for thinking Seven Samurai and Akira Kurosawa.

This is really a very very good, if not a bit obscure, 60’s jidai-geki shot in black and white, which is the only medium that can truly do justice to the genre. Solid DP work with the classic Nipponese geometrical style in compositions, the remastered print is gorgeous to look at and Eiichi Kudo, who was an unknown quality for me so far, proves to be a very skillfull film-maker. The story carries familiar jidai-geki themes of the era; the oppression of the strong, old friends that have to face off, a vassal that sees how villainous his lord is yet he doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice his life for him. It’s not quite as elaborate and tragic as Kobayashi’s work and is pretty much abandoned after the first half hour where the emphasis shifts to the planning of the assassination, but it still provides a solid dramatic backdrop. The final battle could have been better though, not bad by any means but it won’t make any best-final-fights lists either.

Overall a very solid and commendable effort, beautiful to look at with a nice story and some action to go with it. Fans of the genre will definitely lap it up. (imdb)

Jusan-nin.no.shikaku.1963.1080p.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-SbR.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2 h 5 min
Size: 	6.82 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x816 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	7 542 kb/s
BPP: 	0.201
Audio
#1:  	Japanese 2.0ch E-AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/ACE0971BD21064B/Jusan-nin.no.shikaku.1963.1080p.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-SbR.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Eiichi Kudô – Jûsan-nin no shikaku AKA The Thirteen Assassins (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This is the sixth film in the Brutal Tales of Chivalry series.

Brutal.Tales.of.Chivalry.6.1969.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-ARiN.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 45mn
Size:	7.52 GiB
Video
Codec:	h264
Resolution:	1920x816
Aspect ratio:	2.35:1
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	10 000 Kbps
Audio
2.0ch E-AC-3 @ 224 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/2E7AB4AC3ED5E62/Brutal.Tales.of.Chivalry.6.1969.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-ARiN.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:None

The post Kôsaku Yamashita – Showa zankyo-den: Hito-kiri karajishi AKA Brutal Tales of Chivalry 6 (1969) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Takakura is a young gang boss tricked by the villainous Toru Abe. His underlings, lead by Chiezo Kataoka, start planning for revenge after Takakura dies in jail.

1.06GB | 1h 33m | 640×480 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/23889DD5B87BA9A/Gyangu_Chushingura_(1963)_480p_WEB-DL_AAC2.0_H.264.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/C66C9CC7587E664/Gyangu_Chushingura_(1963)_480p_WEB-DL_AAC2.0_H.264.srt

Language:Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Shigehiro Ozawa – Gyangu Chûshingura (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis
A samurai is ordered by his lord to go to Edo and investigate the truth behind the rumor of a rebellion against him. After collecting enough information to prove a conspiracy, the samurai needs to devise some way of leaving Edo without creating suspicion and comes up with a cockeyed plan. Based on the short story by Shiga Naoya.

896MB | 1:17:59 | 624×464 | avi

http://nitroflare.com/view/4ABB17A9EB03631/Capricious.Young.Man.avi
http://nitroflare.com/view/F74D7355752CECD/Capricious.Young.Man.srt
http://nitroflare.com/view/5C8D0211181465D/Capricious_Young_Man_-_Missing_Scenes.txt

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Mansaku Itami – Akanishi Kakita aka Capricious Young Man (1936) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:

This anthology film consists of nine incidents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when assassins changed the course of Japanese history. Among them are the Sakurada Gate Incident that occurred in 1860 (Assassination of Ii Naosuke) and the February 26th Incident of 1936, when a group of Japanese Army troops attempted a coup d’état. The vignettes are all played out in ultra-violent form by a large number of Japan’s major stars, including Wakayama Tomisaburo, Sugawara Bunta, Tsuruta Koji, Takakura Ken, Chiba Shinichi, and Kataoka Chiezo. The main bulk of this film concerns the ”League of Blood” a group led by radical priest Inoue Nissho (Kataoka) who takes a troubled young man (Chiba in by far his greatest performance as an actor) under his wing, leading to a pair of assassinations that helped change Japan from a burgeoning democracy into the militaristic juggernaut that they become in the mid-20th century.

The film jumps around from one decade to the next documenting various assassinations and their historical context within the extremist political turmoil during three of Japan’s periods of socio-political change — Meiji, Taisho and Showa. We begin in 1860 Edo with the assassination of Grand Elder Naosuke Tairo. This is the only time MEMOIRS OF JAPANESE ASSASSINS caters to jidai-geki conventions; the remaining two plus hours occupying the film fall into the gendai-geki style of Nipponese cinema, those being modern day dramas. So those expecting this to be a sword-slinger might wish to stop reading now.

Far from a movie that will leave you feeling refreshed when it’s over, it’s deadly serious and prime for post-viewing debates from a historical perspective. Die hard Chiba and Japanese cinema fans will find a lot to chew on here, but most others expecting frequent gore and bloodshed (it’s here, but relegated to the beginning and ending) will likely give up about 40 minutes into these MEMOIRS.

1.59GB | 2h 22mn | 859×358 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/825DDB967D190A6/Memoirs.of.Japanese.Assassins.1969.DVDRip.x264-judas-cg.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English

The post Sadao Nakajima – Nihon ansatsu hiroku AKA Memoirs of Japanese Assassins (1969) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Tomu Uchida’s A Bloody Spear at Mt. Fuji is the story of an unassuming samurai who is more interested in a person’s actions than his social standing. In spite of the rigid class divide that exists between himself and his servants he tends to treat them as his equals even when they themselves feel that they are inferior to him. The film features remarkable subplots that add scope and depth to the social criticism offered by the main plot. Among these is the story of a male orphan who idolizes the samurai’s spear bearer and a young woman who is sold into prostitution because her family is too poor to support her.

+Commentary by Jasper Sharp)

2.16GB | 1h 34m | 790×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/3BB1F225B56B32F/A_Bloody_Spear_on_Mount_Fuji_(1955)_–_Tomu_Uchida.mkv

Language(s):Japanese
Subtitles:English (muxed)

The post Tomu Uchida – Chiyari Fuji AKA A Bloody Spear on Mount Fuji (1955) first appeared on Cinema of the World.