Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Asad Almond
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Michael Ledo
Okatsu's father threatens to tell the authorities (whoever they are) that a man is importing untaxed tobacco and making too much profit...oh I kid you not. And BTW he is enslaving local farmers, not so much as a crime. This causes a rift where mom and dad are killed while mom was possibly raped (what was that supposed to be?) in front of her. Okatsu, who is good with a sword vows revenge after she delivers a note telling the government about the bad guy's operation.Certainly there was a lot of cultural aspects that didn't translate well, such as the plot of this script. The action was boring too.Guide: No sex. Maybe a rape. Male rear nudity...my surprise.
MartinHafer
Like the last Okatsu film ("Quick-Draw Okatsu"), this film has little to do with its predecessor other than the leading lady and her name, Okatsu. And, sadly, neither really have a lot to do with the original film, "Yôen Dokufuden Hannya No Ohyaku". I am sure this confused the heck out of viewers and I was left feeling a bit cheated by this. In the original film, Okatsu was the daughter of a prostitute who had killed herself. Later, Okatsu's boyfriend is murdered and she spends the rest of the film seeking revenge. In the second film, instead of being an orphan, she suddenly has a brother and father. They are murdered and she seeks revenge. In this installment, there is no brother and she's got an entirely different father. What gives?! However, despite these many changes in each film, the basic plot is nearly identical--so much that the films start to become boring by #3. As a result, this final installment is understandably the last--I can't see how any momentum could have been established due to the sloppy writing. Making the three films one long saga would have improved the overall effort immensely.In this film, there is, once again, an evil local lord. Okatsu's father is a friend and goes to him--begging him to change his wicked ways. The lord responds by murdering his friend and raping the daughter, Okatsu. However, the dead man has left a letter detailing all the offenses by the lord--accusing him of many crimes. So, the evil big-shot's lackeys spend much of the movie looking for the document--that happens to be hidden on Okatsu. Okatsu's supposed friend leads these men in search of the incriminating letter.Unfortunately, apart from the recycled feel to the film, it also suffers from a profound lack of action. It's much more talky and far less interesting and lacks the spark of the previous two films. Overall, it's watchable but not much more.By the way, did you notice that in EACH of the three films, a male character had to come and help Okatsu? I don't recall too many films with male leads in revenge films who had ANYONE come to help them. A bit of sexism despite the girl-power message, I think.
GrandpaBunche
This third installment in the LEGENDS OF THE POISONOUS SEDUCTRESS series is a major disappointment after the excellence of its predecessor, QUICK DRAW OKATSU. It's pretty much a remake of the previous film, even starring Junko Miyazono as a master swordswoman named Okatsu, but not the same character she played before (?); at the end of QUICK-DRAW OKATSU our heroine was a wanted fugitive, so wouldn't you expect a film entitled OKATSU THE FUGITIVE to be a direct sequel, especially since the film that came before it was a hit and the Japanese are not by any means sequel shy?This new Okatsu is again the blade-proficient daughter of a swordsman, and when her father threatens to expose the vicious corruption of a local magistrate he's tortured in an attempt to get him to reveal the whereabouts of a written document of the magistrate's offenses. When he won't talk, his wife and daughter are hauled in by the bad guys and the wife is thrown to six hardened criminals for a bit of gang rape (which thankfully doesn't occur, but she does get alarmingly manhandled), and after that moment of extreme bad taste dad kills his wife and then himself. Unfortunately Okatsu then falls victim to the evil magistrate and is raped, then thrown into a basement dungeon. With the aid of her sleazy fiancée, she escapes killing several swordsmen in the process with the document hidden in her mother's elaborate (and very pointy) hairpin and sets out to avenge her parents, not realizing her fiancée is in league with the bad guys. After that the film becomes a lackluster and very much by the numbers samurai revenge flick that could have been written with little or no effort by anyone who's ever seen one of these things, and ends up a staggeringly generic item that will be forgotten about five minutes after the title that reads "The End." That's a real shame because the level of quality found in QUICK-DRAW OKATSU lead me to expect a hell of a lot more from all involved, and after this I can see why the series stalled out. T
Chung Mo
Perhaps the honchos at Toei Studios were desperate to have a female "demon" fighter of some sort starring Junko Miyazono or how else can one explain the same film premise being redone in 3 variations within the course of two years? All the elements from "Female Demon Ohyaku" and "Quick Draw Okatsu" are here again. Is it any better? Well, that's a good question.After a cool opening abstract action scene, we are treated to the sight of farmers being oppressed, kidnapped and murdered by the local ruling elite who are running a black market tobacco ring. Investigating this is Mr. Makebe a medium ranking samurai who writes down all the misdeeds of his compatriots and strangely attempts, on his own, to convince the leader Judayu to stop his criminal operation before the central government finds out. Judayu doesn't go along with this idea, captures Mr. Makebe and subjects him to a water wheel torture to find out where the document is hidden. When this doesn't produce results, Judayu tricks Makebe's wife and daughter, Okatsu, to his house where they are threatened with rape in front of Makebe. Mrs Makebe is thrown into a cage with grunting criminals who try to rape her but Okatsu, who we've seen perfect a special technique in sword fighting class earlier, breaks free and battles the minions of Judayu. In the mêlée Mr. Makebe kills himself and his wife but not before telling Okatsu where the document is hidden. Okatsu's sword instructor shows up and tricks her into letting her guard down then knocks her out. The evil Judayu rapes Okastu but she won't reveal where the document is hidden. Judayu then enlists the help of Okatsu's pathetic fiancé who helps Okatsu to "escape" only to see if she goes for the document. She gets it and goes on a quest for revenge against Judayu while being tailed by her fiancé.Does the story sound a little un-thought out? Well that's because it isn't thought out very well at all. There are some big plot holes such as when Okatsu gets the document but no-one tries to get from her when she finds it. There's a scene of the bad guys feeding the farmers and suddenly killing them all. Why? Who knows, it isn't explained. Other times the bad guys just stop fighting and run away even though they seem to have the advantage. It's unfortunate since this is the best looking film in the trio. The camera and lighting are great. The actors are once again great and the fight scenes are well done at times. Junko Miyazono still seems uncomfortable with a sword but there are a few scenes where the choreography is perfect for her abilities. Of course her acting makes up for her physical limitations. As a note, Tomisaburo Wakayama wasn't involved in this film.So we have three films where the chief villain virtually repeats the same lecherous threats against the heroine. We have virtually the same rape scene three times. We have two films where the family is tortured to death and two films with a plucky young woman in shorts/ miniskirt. This time the Rui character shows up as an orphan living in a temple but unlike "Quick-Draw Okatsu", she really has no point being in this film at all and is wasted. She kicks one guy, jumps into a tree and essentially disappears for the rest of the film.This film isn't bad at all despite the poor plot structure, you should just watch it with some time between watching the other films otherwise the repetition might be deadly.