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| Images courtesy of Radiance Films |
Radiance Films continues to make their presence known in the
western film community as one of the frontrunners in dealing out beautifully
restored special editions of foreign language films that have yet to receive an
English friendly release of any kind whether its Italian crime sagas or renowned
epics of mid 1960s-70s Asian period classics of the action and dramatic fields. Their latest massive endeavor comes in the
form of directors Shigehiro Ozawa (The Street Fighter) and Eiichi Kudo’s
(13 Assassins) trilogy of rogue samurai action films starring future Lone
Wolf and Cub star Tomisaburo Wakayama dubbed The Bounty Hunter Trilogy. Starting out in 1969 with Ozawa’s Killer’s
Mission before the heroic protagonist was plugged into a wartime epic that
same year with Kudo’s The Fort of Death before giving the character a
break until 1972 with Ozawa back in the director’s chair for Eight Men to
Kill, the trio of Shogun era action thrillers echo sentiments of James Bond
and the spaghetti western ala the Sartana film series with its cool gadgetry
and slickly stoic doctor/spy-for-hire.
Making its worldwide blu-ray disc premiere in the US and UK
respectively in a limited-edition boxed set release numbered to 3,000 copies
replete with a fully rendered booklet of essays including but not limited to
writings by Alain Silver and newly translated archival texts as well as
replicas of Japanese and Eastern European mini-posters of all three films. As always, the box is delivered with reversible
sleeve art on all three films housed in two amaray cases replete with a
Japanese-styled OBI slip detailing the disc release. With the transfers supplied by Toei for all
three films in high-definition after extensive digital restoration, the aptly
named Bounty Hunter Trilogy comes as another significant uncovered
chapter in not only a turning point for the Shogun era jidaigeki action
adventure thriller caked with ample bloodletting and stunning samurai swordplay
to boot prominently featuring a soon-to-be Japanese samurai film icon of the
1970s.
Killer’s Mission (1969)
In the first of three separate adventures lived out by Shikoro
Ichibei (Tomisaburo Wakayama), the character appears seemingly out of nowhere
to sort out a bitter dispute slicing and dicing his way through bodies with
frequent slow-motion bloodletting reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah. Learning the shogunate secret agent operates
as a doctor during the day and spy-for-hire at night, Ichibei is tasked with
investigating a mercurial dealing involving a Dutch warship over the sale of
repeating rifles for an intended uprising against the Shogun. However as he forms a ragtag team of trained comrades
including a skilled female spy named Kagero (Yumiko Nogawa), a female warrior
named Akane (Tomoko Mayama) and scaredy cat ronin who strives to be his
assistant, the actual scenario proves far more mercurial and complex than he
initially realized, resulting in all manner of killing, bloodshed, torture and
wicked cool James Bond-like tools and weaponry.
Penned by Koji Takada and Masaru Igami, a funky guitar rock-oriented
Bond score by Masao Yagi and picturesque widescreen cinematography by
Nagaki Yamagisha, the period Shogun era action-thriller is a melding together
of disparate subgenres of the American and Italian westerns in the form of a
samurai epic. With its cavalcade of spies,
female ninjas and ronin including but not limited to metaphysical feats of
flying that invariably forecasted Ang Lee’s loving tribute Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon, the Wakayama starring actioner is at once fun, thrilling and
unforgivingly brutal. Making no bones
about how far it dares to go with a still-vicious torture scene that would make
Marathon Man blush as well as plentiful scenes of our titular Ichibei
slicing and dicing his way through bodies en masse like a one-man war, Killer’s
Mission is almost juicily crimson drenched.
Of the three films Killer’s Mission perhaps remains
the strongest for solidarity and its emphasis on female endurance with respect
to Kagero’s character and mixing in historical fiction involving the Shogun era
and political machinations navigated by Ichibei’s singular actions including
but not limited to using his sword sheath as a makeshift telescope and a handy
pistol on hand. While ostensibly an
attempt to cash in on the then-budding craze of the spy thriller subgenre warmed
over with elements of the spaghetti western thriller replete with a mournful
but rousing score and sweeping panoramic cinematography, the first in the Bounty
Hunter Trilogy nevertheless remains a striking starting point that would or
wouldn’t forecast the Lone Wolf and Cub series led by Wakayama.
The Fort of Death (1969)
Curious for how quickly the film came together with
crossover casting and writing, The Fort of Death this time under the reins
of Eiichi Kudo finds Ichibei well at work in his doctor’s office being summoned
to help in a Seven Samurai like mission involving an Enoki fortification
guarded by farmers being threatened by a brutal Lord Ozeki (Asao Koike) bent on
their destruction. Recasting Kagero with
Tomoko Mayama from the previous film, this time with a new crew of ronin
samurai, a gatling gun that mows down bodies of infantry coming towards the
fort, efforts to steal the gun and finally cannon warfare. Altogether, much like Akira Kurosawa’s
time-honored samurai epic and Takashi Miike’s loose reimagining years later
with 13 Assassins, the period action picture becomes an increasingly
tense pressure cooker as Ichibei and crew battle to the bitter end for the
stronghold of the fort.
A straightforward samurai war picture where emphasis on guns
becoming an integral factor in changing the powers of the battlefield not
unlike Kurosawa’s suggestions at the end of Seven Samurai, The Fort
of Death more or less takes the heroes from Killer’s Mission and dumps
them in a meat grinder. Featuring more
foreboding if not mournful music by Toshiaki Tsushima and sweeping, epic
widescreen cinematography by Juhei Suzuki, this follow-up entry to the James
Bond sendoff by way of the Shogun era is decidedly darker and more somber
in tone. While action packed sporting a
cool gatling gun reminiscent of the one shown off in Sergio Corbucci’s Django,
the feel of this saga suggests a situation where our heroes are in over their
heads and there’s a strong likelihood not everyone will make it out alive.
A solid follow-up inexplicably churned out immediately after
the first film at breakneck speed, The Fort of Death is most certainly the
bleakest of the trilogy and for the character Ichibei is enough to sheath his
sword and holster his guns for good.
Including a scene of Ichibei being attacked in his undies and forced to fight
before being able to dress, Wakayama in this is in pure ferocious battle mode and
comes across onscreen in this as a chiseled war machine to fear and respect. For all of the blackness contained therein
this riff on Akira Kurosawa, Wakayama as Ichibei is more than kind of awesome
in this. One of the better Japanese
spiritual remakes of arguably the greatest action-adventure period samurai epic
of all time.
Eight Men to Kill (1972)
After the fires of the first two films cooled for three
years and interest in Tomisaburo Wakayama grew with the release of the first Lone
Wolf and Cub film, director Shigehiro Ozawa who first introduced the
character of Ichibei returned for one last mission for the titular gunslinging
samurai wunderkind with Eight Men to Kill. As with the first two, the medium-set jovial
yet calm and collected Doctor Ichibei is tasked with retrieving a cache of
stolen gold from a government mine. Commenting
on the rise of the gold rush and the ensuing ruthless violence as well as medical
aspects including but not limited to two scenes of abdominal surgery to remove
gold nuggets, soon Ichibei realizes he must sort out this unfolding war himself
against bandits hellbent on murdering any and all who stand between them and
the gold.
Reuniting the character with the crew who started it
including composer Masao Yagi and cinematographer Nagaki Yamagishi back in tow,
this third entry is easily the most carnal of the three giving Ichibei some
sexy time in between slayings. There’s
also a vengeful female ninja determined to avenge her older brother’s death
with a denouement not wholly unlike the fate of Kagero in the first Bounty
Hunter film, some cringeworthy scenes of surgery as well as the use of acupuncture
and even child murder at one point.
Despite these aspects and the sociopolitical commentary afoot, somehow
this Leone-esque conclusion to Wakayama’s rogue samurai trilogy while
delightfully gory pales in comparison to the previous two films that seemed to
wrap up the character’s journey.
All in all, coming to the end of the trilogy the journey of
Ichibei the Bounty Hunter just as the Lone Wolf and Cub films were
getting off the ground, Radiance Films’ The Bounty Hunter Trilogy represents
another overlooked series of action period samurai gems more than worth of
rediscovery and reappraisal. Their deluxe
collector’s set is beautifully detailed with poster reprints and an extensive
booklet and the adventures of our rogue lone samurai for hire/full time doctor couldn’t
look or sound more beautiful on home video than they do here. Another smash hit release from Radiance Films
who continue to lead the charge in boutique labels curating and unveiling
generally hard-to-find undiscovered foreign films to Western audiences for the
first time ever.
--Andrew Kotwicki
