Kenji Misumi's Sword Trilogy

[Drunk Monk]

Kiru (1962)

A chanbara film, the first of a thematic trilogy by director Kenji Misumi. Misumi is one of the greatest directors of the genre. Among his works is the launch of Zatoichi and many installments of that franchise (aka Blind Swordsman), the Itto Ogami franchise (aka Lone Wolf & Cub) and Hanzo the Razor. 

Kiru (aka Destiny’s Son) is an exemplary classic chanbara. It follows the life os Shingo, an adopted child of a samurai, and has multiple acts as he moves from samurai to ronin then back to samurai. It’s beautifully shot with majestic landscapes and the severe symmetry that is Japanese architecture, magnificent textile details and moody seasonal stages. The various acts move along at a good pace parsed by classic sword duels with frequent call backs to previous events stitching it all together. At first, the style felt a bit choppy but it came around once everything starts rolling. The choreo was simple yet smart with Shingo’s tactics evolving through each duel, plus two wicked wakezashi women scenes, the first right at the start, the second a surprising stripping strategy which I’ve seen a variation of in a Zatoichi film. 

What really impressed me was how much ground it covered in just an hour and eleven minutes. Impressive movie making on all fronts. 

I’d never heard of this thematic trilogy (Kiru ends decisively although the other 2 films have Raizo Ichikawa in the lead as well). Maybe it’s just a criterion thing. Among Misumi’s vast filmography (he was putting out 4 movies a year at his peak) I’d not heard of any of the three films in this trilogy. I look forward to the next two.

[Drunk Monk]

Ken (1964)

The 2nd in criterion’s sword trilogy. This is in B&W (Kiru was color) and set in modern times (the 60s). It’s the saga of a university Kendo team captain who is utterly dedicated to the art. ‘Ken’ means sword - same character as jian in Chinese and the Ken in Kendo. 

It brought me back to my SJSU days when I was doing Kendo & Fencing. The Kendo practices were unsettlingly similar to what I did. I didn’t realize that it was so standardized. In the latter part of thr film, the team goes to a training camp and does a lot of grueling roadwork which reminded me of those NCAA Fencing days. All the practice was well choreographed - it looked exactly like university Kendo. 

The team captain reminded me of a Mishima character; he’s solely dedicated to the art and reaching towards the divine - the sun - with it. I could relate to the aspiration even though I was never near that dedicated. The ending was a total punch in the gut. I somewhat anticipated it as it was foreshadowed and it was very Mishima. 

Ken was such a different film than Kiru, arguably the best Kendo film ever, but there’s not many that I know of so that’s a low bar. Nevertheless, D00M recommended, especially for the D00M sword peeps.

[Drunk Monk]

Ken Ki (1965)
The title translates to sword demon. This was the weakest of the three. An orphan of dubious birth becomes a gardener for a lord that’s losing his mind. The orphan is named Hanpei which is an obscure reference to the belief that his father was a dog. He learns iai by watching a ronin practice in the forest. In some ways, this is an iai film. Hanpei resheathes his sword in between cuts, which is a weird thing to do when there’s other opponents still standing. He takes a cursed sword from a sealed box of cursed swords in a temple and then he becomes an assassin. The beats of this story were awkward - many of Hanpei’s growth transitions just didn’t make sense. The sword fights start small but then culminate in a huge one vs many battle that’s pretty satisfying. However the flaws in the storytelling undermine the finale. It’s as if Misumi is reaching for something, but falls short of achieving his vision leaving us to wonder what it all meant.

Raizo Ichikawa is the lead in all three films and to his credit, each character is very different. The only common thread is that they’re all great swordsmen. 

The first two at D00M recommended. This last one is skippable.