Kiru (The Sword Cut/Destiny’s Son). 1962. Japan. Directed by Kenji Misumi. Screenplay by Kaneto Shindo, based on the novel by Renzaburo Shibata. With Raizo Ichikawa, Shiho Fujimura, Mayumi Magisa. 4K restoration courtesy of Kadokawa Corporation and Janus Films. In Japanese; English subtitles. 71 min.
Kenji Misumi’s so-called Sword Trilogy is a revelation. Made in rapid succession between 1962 and 1965—and recently restored in 4K by the Kadokawa Corportation—Kiru (1962), Ken (1964), and Kenki (1965) brought a thrilling vitality to a familiar Japanese genre, and helped launch the career of Raizo Ichikawa, Japan’s answer to James Dean, a tough, soulful actor who, like his American counterpart, died tragically young. Misumi, a prolific filmmaker who brought an idiosyncratic style to popular Japanese genres like the chanbara (sword fighting film) and jidai-geki (period piece), was a former Soviet prisoner of war in Siberia and an assistant to Teinosuke Kinugasa on Gate of Hell (1953) who later became internationally famous for his movie adaptations of the wildly violent and successful Lone Wolf and Cub manga.
In Kiru, the tale of a master samurai who discovers his parents’ violent past, we find Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo laced with a darkling Oedipal eroticism. The film is notable for a screenplay by Kaneto Shindo (Kuroneko, Onibaba) and claustrophobic cinematography by Shôzô Honda (who excelled at chanbara).