Poruno jidaigeki: Bôhachi bushidô

Pursued by the authorities, rōnin assassin Shiro (Tetsurô Tanba) is taken in by the immoral Bohachi clan, who use the warrior's awesome sword-fighting skills to help them seize control of the local prostitution industry. When no longer of any use, the evil Bohachi leader tries to dispose of Shiro by getting him addicted to opium and caging him up with a syphilitic whore; but even stoned out of his gourd, the assassin proves to be a formidable opponent...

I'm of the opinion that, like cyborgs and dwarfs (and cyborg dwarfs), gratuitous female nudity and gore can make virtually any film more entertaining; director Teruo Ishii clearly agrees, loading Bohachi, a delightfully sleazy Chanbara movie, with countless naked Japanese cuties and very bloody sword-fights, which means that when the screen isn't full of tits (no muff: this being a Japanese film the ladies keep their hands in front of their nether regions at all times), there's severed body-parts flying everywhere instead. Sometimes, Ishii even combines the two, having his naked Bohachi women whipping out weapons and partaking in the violence themselves—something I'm all in favour of.

The name of the game here is clearly 'exploitation excess' meaning that on top of the all the wonderful big-breasted Asian babes and bright crimson blood, viewers can also expect a smidgen of torture, a smattering of lesbianism, and some opium-fuelled sex (with hero Shiro entertaining not one woman, but four!), all realised with hyper-stylised direction that uses strong experimental lighting effects to really add to that cool 70s vibe.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

A sober and very well-made story about some of the dark clans that moved behind the shadows of the shogunate in feudal Japan ...

Both the fight of the first scene, and the end are great, especially that brutal closure. Liters of blood, enough sex without reaching vulgarity and Tetsuro Tamba making a dark, nihilistic and surprising Ronin in search of the path of death ...

What more you can ask?

I had no idea what I was getting myself into and it turned out to be quite the ride. Now let's say the obvious thing and adress the elephant in the room: This is sleazy! If you think women are portrayed in a good light here, don't even consider watching this. Fortunately the focus switched a bit during the movie. After a very nicely shot and edited beginning (action wise), it gets quite dark and you see some despicable things.

Now as I mentioned it shifts gear, right before our main character is going over or rather crosses a line, I know I wouldn't have been able to overlook. But even so, apart from him there are quite a few despicable and quite obnoxious characters. Sleazy would be another word to describe them. Now I had not seen or read the Manga this is based on, but the DVD gives you a comparison option. You can see some of the drawings and the movie seems to come very close to those (changes were made of course).

So quite a lot of blood and violence and at least as much nudity (upper area and behind) made people call this "adult". For the 70s it more than was ...

There are more bare breasts than you can shake a stick at in "Boachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight". In fact it seems like there is scarcely a scene in the movie in which female nudity is not depicted, usually from many naked or topless women in the scene at once. Some of them are quite beautiful, but I didn't find it erotic.

The violence is overrated. Mostly it's just sword swipes with people falling over, and maybe a bit of blood, which of course looks like bright red paint. It's only in the climactic scene that legs and heads are chopped off, and you can clearly see the strings attached to these prop-body parts as they fly, or rather hang, in the air.

I'm not entirely sure what the movie was about. I get that it was something to do with a joyless samurai assassin who was hired by a guy who owns a cadre of cooze, but other than that, I don't really know. The guy who hires the anti-hero is pretty damn ugly, which black teeth, a pig like face, and an ability to talk without moving his mouth, apparently.

Most of the movie is just girls baring their breasts, walking around naked, being "stolen" by men, or molesting them. In one scene they molest a Western woman, who is tied to a bench, and then fight over her, saying they each wanted to taste her body.

There's no full frontal nudity in the movie though. Japan has always been weird like that. A country synonymous with tentacle rape, sharking, gokkun, futanari... but pubic hair and genitals are a bridge too far, to this day.

I still enjoyed the movie. It is not made without skill, and has a crazy, phantasmagoric feeling to it, like Jodorowsky.

Staggering soft-porn samurai picture that impresses by stunning visual, utterly choreographed on those numberless mist night fights, almost shot at sound stage which is easily noticed on the projector focuses the light on the Ronin during one fight scenes, a clever insight of the director of photography, also a well-conceived story about a lonely Ronin Shinô Ashita (Tetsurô Tanba) on his fabulous dexterity on the use of sword against a crowd, he is invites to enter in a mighty Borachi's clan, led by an old wicked Shirobei Daimon (Tatsuo Endo) and their evil lackeys, the appealing is about the rules to became one of them, the applicant ought swear outright leave all eight virtues which he got, regret, lowliness, magnanimity, charity, meekness, temperance, continence and finally forgiveness, the Clan exploits a high profile w.h.o.r.e.d.o.m.

He is accepts on the Borachi's clan even had failed on a phony test, nonetheless the thoughtful boss has a bold plan to stand out of the opposite Yoshihara's Clan that shares the same dirty business on nearby on the town with cheapest prostitutes, also the gorgeous women are used as skillful bodyguards, thus the forthcoming and relentless clash took effects, ends up in the bloodshed, the emperor's forces spring into action at Magistrate's behest, the strife has to be end, although it has a price, a fair agreement which both sides must yeld, the sneaky Boss also shall deliver the expendable Shino's head.

Based in a grass-roots comic book the cunning and dared director Teruo Ishii made a masterful feature, even being labeled as pornographic, whereby it is today an eligible soft one only, where the most hard-nose puritans wouldn't give a s.h.i.t for it, actually a bashful eroticism deployed gave a faint hope for those that were seeking something a little harder, a fine piece of sexploitation mixing with epic samurai tale, colorful and essential, I've agree with a reviewer who wrote that stuff sounds like Russ Meyer did in America and was thereafter worshipped by countless fanatic cinephiles including myself !!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2021 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.