Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Yashua Kimbrough (jimniexperience) Bloody tale of a Ronin gone mad , entrusting all faith of humanity into an evil sword that he uses to chop down anybody standing in his way. As he treks his path of merciless slayings he gathers allies, enemies, and vengeful spirits along the way: a pair of pilgrims and a compassionate thief, the fornicated wife from a slain husband and a brother seeking revenge, group of masterless samurai strongarming Shogunate officials, and the rival master swordsman whom only swings his sword for justice and honor - contradictory to the main character's beliefs.Typical villainous movie . Simple plot filled with tension and evil deeds, excellent choreographed sword fights. Supreme body count for the era of Japanese Golden Cinema. Original in the killer samurai genre.

maddox-richard For various reasons, some movies are immediately pleasing while others take their time to grab you (or perhaps you take your time to become receptive to their charms). Occasionally a film combines the two effects and Sword of Doom is one of these: It has this quality of being immediately entertaining and yet it retains or withholds so much detail that you need to watch several times to comprehend every nuance.It's not that it works "on many levels", though you could approach it that way. Rather, Sword Of Doom simply has lots of unexplained back story, some of it historical, and the back story is so interesting that, if you wish, your enjoyment can be as much about understanding the back story as it is about the film and the performances.It's an adult approach to entertainment: A complicated narrative made simple and entertaining by leaving a lot of detail to your imagination or further research.I've watched it a few times now and am looking forward to watching it a lot more. Each time I do so I'll probably check a few IMDb postings and wikipedia pages to get a new angle on the film and to learn a bit more detail on the period. As a first time watch I probably rated it 8 or 9/10 but as I keep watching it it makes a 10.

Severian-6 Well, this one is just extraordinary. I'm a fan of these 'chambara' pics, and I can honestly say I've never seen a samurai film before where the main protagonist is a sociopathic killer (and, no, I wouldn't count Ogami Itto from the 'Lone Wolf & Cub' films in that category). Believe me, he is not a sympathetic character. Bizarrely, however, he can be viewed within the context of the movie as a kind of 'destroying angel', with each of his victims deserving his/her fate for one reason or another. Even the defenceless old man asks the Buddha for the gift of death (just before his wish is granted). As the film proceeds to its close, the body count rises and rises until it seems we perceive the action through the warped perspective of Ryunosuke himself, and it becomes impossible to tell if what we see is reality or simply his twisted fantasy. I wonder if Scorsese was partly inspired by this when he filmed 'Taxi Driver'. You owe it to yourself to watch this one. Just a shame that the DVD itself is not a bit more interesting.

GyatsoLa What an amazing movie! I got this expecting an action packed samurai movie - what I wasn't expecting is for it to be so intense, so fascinating in its exploration of notions of karma. This is one movie that I'd strongly recommend anyone to read up the discussions here - there are some very interesting contributions about the background to the movie, otherwise much of it will be inexplicable to the casual western viewer.Kihachi Okamoto is not a director whose movies I'd seen before, but apparently he worked with many of the greats from the 1940's onwards. He certainly had an amazing, if very dark vision. This movie is superbly directed, with great pacing, beautifully filmed settings and some staggeringly good action scenes that rank amongst the very best I've ever seen. The story is in many ways unexpected and confusing - this is at least partly due to it being part of a series that was never (sadly) completed. But also it seems that Okamoto's intention was not to produce a simple good vs. bad movie with a satisfying ending. Instead he is much more interested in Buddhist notions of karma and how bad karma infects all around it, dragging people literally into hell (or at least this is my interpretation of that very puzzling, but also memorable ending).So long as you don't expect the movie to follow a traditional and predictable story arc, I'd strongly recommend it. The directors vision is dark and violent, but it is brilliantly realised. You will not forget Tatsuya Nakadai's disturbed and evil swordsman in a long time and the action sequences are dazzling.