"Let's see how it feels to be inside you at the moment of your death."
Bohachi Bushido: The Villain (1974), is a spiritual sequel to Teruo Ishiii's film Bohachi Bushido: The Forgotten Eight (1973). In The Villian, directed by Takashi Harada, the story follows a different ronin, Kyushi-Issho (Gorô Ibuki), a man with no particular path, with his only constant companion being the chaos that permanently follows in his wake. Similar to the previous film, Kyushi-Issho falls in with the Bohachi clan, a group of samurai with zero morals who kidnap women and force them to become sex slaves via gruesome torture methods. Instead of killing Kyushi-Issho on sight, they hire him to protect them from rival clans and to round up more women for the harem.
Kyushi-Issho's nihilistic and brutal character sets this film apart from other jidaigeki-style samurai movies, and the pervasive graphic sex and violence put it firmly in the exploitation category. For the most part, thematically, the narrative doesn't have much to say about the abhorrent treatment of the women and the abuse is definitely presented in a way to elicit titillation and explore fetishes. That being said, Reiko Ike owns her role as Monkumatsu, the head brothel recruiter, a strong and fiery woman who doesn't take any shit and packs a pistol she isn't afraid to use.
Later on in the film, Kyushi-Issho murders a man who sold his daughter to the Bohachi to pay off his drinking debts and, in a brief moment of pity, takes her in. She is driven mad by the loss of her family, and her only purpose in life is to kill Kyushi-Issho. For whatever reason, perhaps feeling kinship with her madness and subsequently her existence in a never-ending hell, he takes her to bed, even as she stabs him in his arm with a knife. He only knows pain and suffering and finds solace in the darkness of insanity. There is a love triangle between the mad woman and Monkumatsu though his feelings for the latter are more based on lust and conquest than mutual love.
Visually, The Villain is beautifully shot, though it never reaches the height of stylization that The Forgotten Eight reached. However, there are several creative sequences, and the swordplay is snappy, with spurts of blood and limbs flying all over the place. The third act drifts into brutality and gore with a drugged Kyushi-Issho facing off with dozens of enemies. It is a similar vibe to the ending of The Forgotten Eight though less dreamy and psychedelic. Although this film is stand-alone and can be watched independently of Ishii's version, it is highly recommended that one watch both as they are different takes on a provocative and haunting tale.
--Michelle Kisner