Sanbiki no samurai

Hideo Gosha got his start on television. His biggest hit was Three Outlaw Samurai, and in 1964 he got the chance to direct a prequel to that series with this, his first theatrical film. Tetsuro Tanba plays a wandering samurai who comes upon a hostage situation involving three peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of the local magistrate. The peasants of the district are being treated very poorly and are starving. Tanba sees that these guys aren't bad (the girl, Miyuki Kuwano, is unharmed) and decides to help them stand up to the magistrate. Among the men the magistrate hires to dispatch of the samurai and the peasants are Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira, who will both switch sides and join up with Tanba eventually. Gosha's direction is impressive and the black and white cinematography is gorgeous. Occasionally the story is confusing and could be communicated a bit better, but for the most part it's not difficult to follow. The ending in particular is fantastic. I'd love to see some of the original series, but unfortunately it's lost.

Unlike the more familiar Seven Samurai, remade as The Magnificent Seven, this film only features three. Really, it is only one for most of the movie, then another joins in, and finally the third.

The story is familiar. The Samurai feel sorry for the poor peasants and one even gives up his luxurious life in the Magistrate's service to fight the evil tax collector that is bleeding the peasants dry.

It's the film debut for Hideo Gosha, and he does a great job of mixing samurai fighting and humor and concern for the poor into an enjoyable film that was beautifully shot.

I am certainly going to look for more of his work.

Hideo Gosha's first in a series of great movies leading up to his double triumph of Hitokiri and Goyokin in 1969, is a simple but engaging chambara with a sociopolitical angle that has more in common with Kurosawa's work than the stylistic flourishes and visual grammar the director developed later in his career.

Very similar to Seven Samurai in terms of style and themes, this is another take on the familiar story of cynical samurais helping out poor peasants in their fight against the oppression of the rich and powerful. Three lowly peasants kidnap a daimyo's daughter and demand a tax reform that will ease the economic burden for all the peasants in the nearby villages. It's all well plotted and interesting for the duration with great performances all around and near superb swordplay action. Gosha's two Samurai Wolf films as well as Sword of the Beast would make ideal companion pieces as an entry point to the director's output. Fans of Kurosawa's jidaigeki work are likely to appreciate it just as well.

Three Outlaw Samurai is a relentlessly thrilling Samurai movie full of twists and betrayals.

After a title sequence with a bombastic score, the action begins almost immediately in this film. A wandering Samurai stumbles upon a hostage situation - a few pathetic peasants (not too different from the ones in Seven Samurai) are holding the daughter of an aristocrat hostage in the hope that he would waive taxes. After observing the bumbling peasants and their failed negotiations with the aristocracy for a while, the cynical Samurai decides to join the fight on the peasants side.

While watching this film, it struck me that the Samurai attitude towards life is not too different from the cowboys in spaghetti westerns or protagonists in Noir thrillers. They are very cynical and are always watching how the situation unravels. But they often put their neck on the line in the end.

The treatment and portrayal of women in this film is quite hilarious and politically incorrect.

I liked the way the director balanced the different aspects of the film - the film is a mix of cynical tongue in cheek humor and relentless action while also foregrounding themes like samurai honor and the plight of peasants.

The plot, like a Noir film is quite complicated.

(7.5/10)

Strong performances, economy of storytelling, abundant action and even a keen sense of class consciousness...Hideo Gosha manages to get just about everything right in his first directorial effort. "Three Outlaw Samurai" stars genre stalwart Tetsuro Tamba as a wandering ronin who decides to aid a group of peasants in their struggle against a cruel magistrate; eventually he is joined by Isamu Nagato as another ronin sympathetic to the plight of the people, and Mikijiro Hira as a more ethically compromised warrior who turns his back on the magistrate at the last minute. I'm not a huge fan of Gosha but he really was on fire here, weaving a fine dramatic tale (without taking three talky, long-assed hours to get his point across) and punctuating it with a number of teeth-grindingly intense fight sequences. Especially good were Nagato's scenes with the spear: it's an unusual weapon for a chambara film, but the actor wields it masterfully under the direction of choreographer Kentaro Yuasa.

You may have encountered other examples of this genre and found them underwhelming, but don't dismiss the samurai film altogether before you've seen Hideo Gosha's debut. I guarantee that "Three Outlaw Samurai" will not disappoint.