Hiken

As Tenzen wanders through the tale becoming increasingly cruel, Chojuro follows in his wake studying & analyzing the devilishly undefeatable sword style. When he believes he has cracked the secret of defeating Tenzen, the climactic duel is engaged. To say more gives away one of the most stunning conclusions ever seen in a samurai film, but never was a cry of "I won!" ever so ironic.

This is one of Inagaki's finest films, much more artful than his more famous Samurai Trilogy. A subtitled film print has rarely been shown, & the currently available DVD is not subtitled. One hopes one of the enterprising distributors of Japanse classics in America will eventually rectify the difficulty of viewing this film.