TENCHU - aka HEAVEN'S PUNISHMENT
Directed by GOSHA HIDEO
STARRING: Katsu Shintaro, Nakadai Tatsuya, Mishima Yukiyo
GOSHA'S LOST MASTERPIECE! On the all-time wish list of most Japanese film addicts, HITOKIRI has been little more than a rumor - until now. A vagrant swordsman (Katsu Shintaro from ZATOICHI) falls under the influence of an aspiring politician, and carries out a series of increasingly brutal assassinations while questioning his own conscience.
Famed writer Mishima Yukio costars as one of the swordsman's doomed friends - Mishima's on-screen hari-kiri eerily anticipated his actual suicide one year later, and is one of the reasons the film has been out of circulation for so long. HITOKIRI shows Gosha at the height of his powers: the sword-battles here are among the most astonishing ever filmed.
1969 Color Widscreen 140 Min.
Japanese with English subtitles
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