La ballade de Kyoshiro Nemuri

With this film, Sword of Seduction, The Sleepy Eyes of Death series comes into its own style. Up to this point, the films have not been that much different from many other ronin style adventures. However, with this one (which I first saw as Kyoshiro Nemuri at Bay) , the series gains its own distinct style, a samurai series with the look of a colorfully Gothic horror film.

In many ways, Sword of Seduction has many of the tropes of the previous entries. Kyoshiro Nemuri tries to protect an innocent (in this case a Christian and his sister willing to do anything to get her brother out of jail). There are bad guy smugglers (here opium smugglers) and another spawn of the Shogun up to no good. However, this time the Shogun's daughter is Princess Kiku, a facially deformed, sexually insatiable, murderess who stands as the series's most memorable villainess. Kiku is not the only untrustworthy female in this entry. In fact, all of the villains are of note this time around, the greedy, the opportunistic, and the crazy.

In terms of action, Sword of Seduction contains the most swordplay of any entry so far. The highlight for me was the duel on water's edge between Nemuri and the Princess Kiku's samurai who has sworn to kill Nemuri. I was also partial to a nocturnal eleven against one standoff. Tomisaburo Wakayama returns as Chen Sun, so once again the viewer is treated to a fists versus sword match.

However, beyond the action, Sword of Seduction contains some beautifully unsettling moments. Take the climax on the smuggler's ship during sunset. The location is clearly a set and the sky a painted backdrop. Far from being a debit, this style increases the atmosphere, the way it did in Kwaidan or some of the 1960's Mario Bava films. The film then concludes with a revelation about Nemuri's parentage that could have came right out of one of those Bava movies. This is bright red, blood pumping, heart of darkness stuff. In addition, the film handles the subplot of Christian persecution more shockingly (and far more entertainingly) than Martin Scorsese did in Silence. Not that Nemuri has any idealism about the Christian martyrs. He calls them stupid for following any religion at the expense of their lives, yet Nemuri has less use for those (like the smugglers) manipulating the persecutions for profit.

Finally, as a side note, part of Sword of Seduction's climax played on a television screen in the 1995 Christopher Lambert movie The Hunted, which is how I was first introduced to Kyoshiro Nemuri. Sword of Seduction was the only one of this series that I had watched (until this month) with English subtitles. It held up well.

Sword of Seduction is somewhat of a departure for the Sleepy Eyes of Death saga. Whereas the previous movies had typed Nemuri as a stray dog ronin, a sardonic fatalist without a past or future like Yojimbo, here we get to discover who he really is, his parents and the circumstances of his birth.

If Sleepy Eyes of Death has the reputation of a dark and violent chambara (especially for its time), it is exactly because of movies like Sword of Seduction. I don't want to spoil the ending that reveals Nemuri's birth but the imagery associated with him literally types him as a sword devil (to borrow the title of a Kenji Misumi picture Ichikawa worked in the next year): the son of the black mass.

This closure doesn't come out of left field though. Throughout the movie Nemuri almost literally cuts through the veils of hypocrisy and illusion: religion, politics, superstition, vanity. Each one in the form of a different subplot, all of which intersect at one point or another. The Christian missionary who renounces his faith for a drink of sake and the body of a woman (but also to save her brother), he gets his head chopped off by Nemuri. The demented daughter of the ex-Shogun who drugs and kills beautiful girls because she is deformed herself, her ugliness is exposed with a swift cut of Nemuri's sword during a Noh dance. The female fortune-teller that tries to seduce Nemuri as part of a weird sex ritual, she gets what's coming to her.

Directed by Kazuo Ikehiro, Sword of Seduction doesn't stand out as a major technical or dramatic achievement of any kind. But on a sensory level, the ways it adds grim undertones in an already cynic serialized character and how it expands the mood and universe of the movie by introducing his past, it is largely a minor triumph. The violence is on par with the previous entry Full Moon Cut and this time around the actual technique evolves on a visual level: we get to see what exactly happens with Nemuri's sword in slow-motion as he traces the circle before he kills his opponent.

If you're thinking of skipping the first three and watching this one first, I would advise against it. Nemuri, like any other serialized character from James Bond to Lone Wolf, has little character development from one entry to the next but it's cool to see the ways the style and story is moved forward.

Many directors say they are influence by Nemury Kyoshiro series. they always said it's a violent series, very dark and symbolic. But when i watch the 3 first, i just dont understand how they can say that.

But with this one, i understand. This movie was disturbing and very violent for the time it was made. Nemury deal with religion, hypocrite, greedy people and lunatics aristocrats. The villains are sadistic and the heroes kill without problem.

This movie set the path for the bloody chanbara of the 70's like Lone Wolf and Cub, Lady Snowblood or Henzo The Blade.

In the first few Sleepy Eyes of Death films, the enigmatic character, Nemuri Kyoshiro. seemed a lot like Zatôichi. Both were nice guys who roamed Japan hoping to help others and right wrongs. However, after a few films, Nemuri seemed much more amoral and unpredictable--helping people sometimes and being amazingly callous and indifferent the next. He also began using sex as a frequent weapon. In this fourth installment, Nemuri is as amoral as ever--and by the end of the film, it seems that no one is particularly good or decent.

The film seems to be set at about the year 1600. During this era, Christians in Japan were being persecuted and crucified by the thousands. Nemuri refuses to help a Christian who appeals to him early in the film. Yet, oddly, later he helps him--making me a tad confused. At the same time, there is a princess who is an opium addicted sadist--taking delight in killing people--particularly pretty ones. Later, there is even a devil cult and a return of the smuggler in episode one. All in all, there are TONS and TONS of story elements, sex (though you see very little) and bad guys with many different masters and agendas. And, since sometimes Nemuri is kind and others a complete jerk, the film was far less satisfying for me. It just seemed like they tossed in everything but the kitchen sink into the film. The only particularly interesting part concerns the devil cult and how it all links to Nemuri.

Overall, the film was just too disjoint and had too much plot to interest me. I really think they had enough plots for two or three films here. To me, the series takes a serious nosedive.

Many directors say they are influence by Nemury Kyoshiro series. they always said it's a violent series, very dark and symbolic. But when i watch the 3 first, i just dont understand how they can say that.

But with this one, i understand. This movie was disturbing and very violent for the time it was made. Nemury deal with religion, hypocrite, greedy people and lunatics aristocrats. The villains are sadistic and the heroes kill without problem.

This movie set the future chanbara of the 70's like Lone Wolf and Cub, Lady Snowblood or Henzo The Blade.