Poruno jidaigeki: Bôhachi bushidô

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 ...

This film is so typically an effort of Teruo Ishii, adhering strictly to a range of conventions enacted by the director himself, that one may have hardships in distinguishing it from his other works. As significant drawbacks, the protagonist has rather restrained expressions of his substantial nihilism and other characters are seemingly superficial, even to the extent of being trivial. For those who search for a glimpse of the dark and wicked Bohachi universe, I would better recommend Takashi Harada's inspiring masterpiece, which gets to reveal Goro Ibuki's true potential to incarnate a surrealistically genuine nihilistic yet overtly conscious character, opposed to the one he is assigned in this film.

It's been a while since I first laid eyes on this film, I now feel it's my duty to share my feelings and views on what happened here. Firstly, if the opening scene does not grab you and slam you into your seat, then you don't really enjoy Grindhouse Chanbara! From the vivid colors to the stylish camera angles, to the Badassery of the lead character Shino, Bohachi - Clan of the forgotten 8 is a masterpiece of sleaze that no male should miss! Nudging elbows with the Baby Cart series, Bohachi adds tons more skin to get your blood pumping even more. Many scenes are reminiscent of a comic, same style as Baby Cart. Violent, while not going over the top reaching gorebore. There is plenty red stuff spraying to keep your utmost attention. It screams style, cult and just looks so damn beautiful doing it. Shino could be related to Ogami Itto, or even Charles Bronson in fact! This film may be wildly off the wall, but it takes it's self dead serious, I believe. All you men, next time girls night out comes around, treat yourself to this beast!

Bohachi Bushido is the story of an ex-samurai named Shiro. Believing life and death to be the same hell, he tries to kill himself by jumping into a river. A very hard man to kill, Shiro is revived by members of the Clan of the Forgotten Eight- an organization of men and women who have discarded god, servitude, loyalty, trust, propriety, justice, conscience, and shame. The Forgotten Eight run Japan's cruel sex industry and they recruit Shiro to rid them of their competition. Shiro agrees to work for them, more out of boredom than any real convictions.

So, we have a bad ass samurai running through the sexual underworld of 17th century Edo directed by Teruro Ishii for Toei studios in 1973. That means blood, lots of nudity, perhaps some misogyny, a couple moments of brilliant cinematography, and maybe just a little more nudity. Not a great movie, but definitely a lot of fun!

Tetsuro Tamba plays a wonderful "Shiro", both pained and bemused by the hell of life. Gorou Ibuki as "Kesazo Shirakubi", the Bohachi second in command, has a great chemistry with Tamba. Ibuki would pretty much play the "Shiro" role in another Bohachi film a few years later as a similar (but sicker) life loathing ex-samurai in "Bohachi Bushido: Saburai" with the lovely Reiko Ike as a pistol wielding Bohachi woman.

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?