Poruno jidaigeki: Bôhachi bushidô

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.

The wanted assassin Shiro is recruited by the immoral Bohachi clan after he is nursed back to health due to injuries suffered from throwing himself into a river to escape capture. The Bohachi clan run an organized prostitution ring and enlist the help of Shiro to kill any prostitute and john who risk doing business freelance and not paying the clan fee. Shiro is granted temporary immunity from the government but as his body count escalates every one is after his head including his own clan. This film is gorgeously shot with empathize on a variety of color tones and spectacular wide angle shots when swordplay is initiated. The female nudity is plentiful and beautifully captured filling the screen with a lethal dose of sensual atmosphere and mean spirited sleaze. The final act is an opium induced orgy that transcends into an epic final showdown that features dismemberments and blood geysers aplenty!

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.

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?

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!