Chiyari Fuji (Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji). 1955. Japan. Directed by Tomu Uchida. Screenplay by Fuji Yahiro, Toshio Tamikado. With Chiezo Kataoka, Ryunosuke Tsukigata, Chizuru Kitagawa, Daisuke Kato. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min.
Uchida’s first film after a decade spent in Manchuria bears the influence of Daisuke Ito, the great pioneer of samurai films, who assisted on the production (alongside Yasujiro Ozu and Hiroshi Shimizu). Film scholar Donald Richie had Ito’s influence in mind when he noted the film’s “loyalty to the master,” calling it a “real” samurai film with prewar sensibilities. The comic device of a servant cleverer than his master—a rebuke to the hierarchical structure of Japanese society—is central to the film, while the explosive, bloody climax demonstrates the fragility of sanity in an unjust world. 35mm print courtesy of Japan Foundation.