Diabolikdvd: Haunted Samurai (1970) - Reviewed

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Independent online retail video store diabolikdvd or diabolikdvd.com have been catering to world cinephiles across the globe for the past several years offering exclusive and/or foreign disc releases to US customers and abroad with reasonable pricing and fast shipping.  In recent years they started their own boutique releasing label called Cauldron Films which has since joined forces with Mondo Macabro to create the new Neon Eagle Video label responsible for Kill Butterfly Kill and Ninja Terminator disc releases.  

Under the radar and in between these two brand new boutique labels, however, diabolikdvd slipped a one-time-pressing disc-premiere of the 1970 Nikkatsu scope widescreen crimson soaked samurai epic Shinobi Demon: Duel in the Wind otherwise known as Haunted Samurai under the radar.  Debuting on the storefront until the disc sold out with no current plans to repress the disc, this gory limbs-severing sword fighting samurai flick by Outlaw: Goro the Assassin director Keiichi Ozawa is a taut little Nikkatsu gem that finds the right creative note in almost every scene.
 
Based on the manga by Lone Wolf and Cub author Goseki Kojima and starring Hideki Takahashi of Miyamoto Musashi as Yagyu clan assassin Rokuheita, Haunted Samurai follows the recently disgraced rogue assassin having abandoned his position after killing his brother-in-law and drives his sister to suicide.  Knowing full well his desertion makes him a target for scattershot ninja skulking the lands, he crosses paths with a topless all-female gang of coral hunting crossbow wielding assassins for a sexy-cool underwater battle before making his way to an impoverished village being threatened by other ninjas and competing samurai such as a shadow warrior played by Isao Nasuyagi.  From here it becomes something of a Yojimbo yarn involving a wandering assassin who decides to help the villagers, taking on an entire armada of assassins in a gruesome blood drenched phantasmagorical finale.

 
With brilliant scope 2.35:1 panoramic widescreen cinematography by The Man Who Rode the Typhoon cameraman Minoru Yokoyama and a funky cool score by Crimson Bat, the Blind Swordsman composer Hajime Kaburagi, Haunted Samurai looks and sounds strangely perfect.  Featuring extraordinary lighting and wild camera movement including some remarkable birds-eye view shots, the action fight choreography and swordplay as well as the precise blocking and editing makes this period gorefest beautiful and dynamic.  

The ensemble performances led by Hideki Takahashi who makes the lone assassin into a stoic hero who fends off lusty females trying to seduce and murder him all come together wonderfully in a wild cacophony of colorfully rendered widescreen violence.  Running a brisk eighty-three minutes and never missing a beat of narrative momentum, it’s the kind of cinematic home run that sends a severed head flying in slow motion across the silver screen as blood spatters across the wall.

 
Making its world blu-ray premiere through the home video store in an exclusive diabolikdvd store release (albeit sadly long since sold out), Haunted Samurai comes housed in a limited collectible slipcover featuring reversible sleeve art with both newly commissioned as well as original Japanese poster art.  Though a bit bare bones, the disc includes a trailer and a running audio commentary by Chris Poggiali and John Charles and the transfer supplied by Nikkatsu looks lovely with no signs of ghosting or DNR application to the restoration process.  

A pretty straight-laced samurai/ninja yarn with some wild surprises and colorful painterly vistas scattered throughout, Keiichi Ozawa’s taut little samurai epic is an underrated gem.  While the disc itself has long since sold out, genre fans perusing secondhand stores may want to see this one out, a delightful little blood and gore drenched Nikkatsu widescreen flick that functions as pure multicolored scope period action entertainment.

--Andrew Kotwicki