Goyôkiba

What can I say about this movie? It is the kind of a story you would describe to a psychiatrist and then add, "At that point, I woke up". A law officer, whose morals are above reproach, rapes female suspects to get them to confess. He also gets sexually aroused by torture.

One might get the impression that the star and producer, Shintaro Katsu, arrived at the conclusion one day that he had enough money to make a movie about his darkest sexual fantasies to watch in his old age.

And yet, I liked the movie...as incomprehensible as much of the plot was... Obviously Katsu is an excellent actor. One sees absolutely no trace of the charismatic Zatoichi character in his Hanzo. He is a different person altogether. Zatoichi lived within society and corruption. Hanzo is fighting a one sided battle against it.

Samurai Shaft. Someone else grabbed that before I could, but the music in this film is unmistakable. Its as if Isaac Hayes himself scored the film.

The Samurai is a policeman, and has more in his bag of tricks that the usual Samurai swords. In fact, even when he is completely naked, he still has a formidable weapon to use in his unusual interrogations.

It doesn't just hang there either. He actually works it out. He beats it with a stick and rams it into what looks like a bag of pebbles to strengthen it. You just have to see it.

Of course, this wouldn't work if he had to interrogate males, so there are plenty of females that need to feel the long arm of the law. When he gets going, they will say anything to keep him from stopping.

Samurai exploitation? It appears that way. This is one Japanese film that will not be remade by Hollywood. I can't wait for Part 2.

Misumi seems ill-at-ease doing a kind of extremely cartoonish and lurid sexploitation film where the emphasis is on Hanzo's 'interrogating' techniques (read forced sex which the victims end up enjoying so much they spill everything he needs to know as a constable - how's that for PC?) rather than anything resembling a samurai movie. That's probably why it verges on the incomprehensible and the experimentations with style and form are as disjointed as the silly script against which they're supposed to work as diversions. In one of the greatest strokes of irony in Japanese cinema, where Misumi failed, Yasuzo Masumura (a director know for more art-house fare) succeeded beyond all expectations in the second entry of the Hanzo series, basically by doing what Misumi opted to avoid: a serioud dark movie. The kind of film Misumi made a career out of.

In the first of a trilogy by famed Director of the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series, Kenji Misumi, Hanzo 'The Razor' Itami (Zatôichi himself, Shintarô Katsu) is an honorable Samurai. He will go after anyone corrupt, no matter how high up in society they are and isn't above rapeing women with his gigantic penis to get them to tell him what he needs to know (don't worry they all end up loving it and begging him not to stop). The training techniques to keep his penis in shape ALONE are worth the price of admission!! And with Hollywood currently being remake crazy, I glad to know that there are some films they wouldn't DARE touch. This film is greatness with it's extremely unPC humor. Plus it has an amazing kitsch '70's soundtrack. thats NEVER bad. The DVD available through HVE entertainment has at the 26 minutes and 13 seconds mark, about 25 seconds of missing audio and at 84 minutes and 15 seconds an uneven jump cut from a few missing frames. But they do mention that before the start of the movie. I'm just glad to have the Hanzo films on DVD at all. I wholeheartedly recommend this film, and the following two.

My Grade: B

DVD Extras: Merely Trailers for all 3 Hanzo the Razor films

Eye Candy: Both Yukiji Asaoka and Mari Atsumi show their heavy hangers, Mari bares her behind as well

Don't watch this one with your female significant other unless she's cool.

Misumi plays a law enforcer with a huge "razor" and uses his "razor" to get women to talk. He also beats the living mess out of every person who messes with him. He hates the government and is sticking it to the man.

All the things you don't want to see are in this film: torture, sex, rape, extreme violence, and dick jokes.

This is a hilarious series. If you love black dynamite or Shaft, this movie is in that VEIN.

See what I did there?