Japan
1968
114 minutes
Black and White
2.35:1
Japanese
313
In this pitch-black action comedy by Kihachi Okamoto, a pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute. One, previously a farmer, longs to become a noble samurai. The other, a former samurai haunted by his past, prefers living anonymously with gangsters. But when both men discover the wrongdoings of the nefarious clan leader, they side with a band of rebels who are under siege at a remote mountain cabin. Based on the same source novel as Akira Kurosawa’s Sanjuro, Kill! playfully tweaks samurai film convention, borrowing elements from established chanbara classics and seasoning them with a little Italian western.
| Genta | Tatsuya Nakadai |
| Hanjiro Tabata | Etsushi Takahashi |
| Tetsutaro Oikawa | Atsuo Nakamura |
| Magobei Shoda | Tadao Nakamaru |
| Shinroku Matsuo | Yoshio Tsuchiya |
| Tamiya Ayuzawa | Shigeru Koyama |
| Hyogo Moriuchi | Eijiro Tono |
| Jurota Arao | Shin Kishida |
| Gendayu Shimada | Hideyo Amamoto |
| Chino | Yuriko Hoshi |
| Director | Kihachi Okamoto |
| Executive producer | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Screenplay | Akira Murao and Kihachi Okamoto |
| Original story | Shugoro Yamamoto |
| Cinematography | Rokuro Nishigaki |
| Editing | Yoshitami Kuroiwa |
| Production Design | Iwao Akune |
| Music | Masaru Sato |
Mirroring changes in awareness, politics, and lifestyle occurring across the globe, the chanbara (or Japanese swordplay film) underwent a significant metamorphosis in the early 1960s, acquiring a decidedly more radical spirit. Seemingly without warning, groundbreaking cinematic styles . . .
Kihachi Okamoto’s dynamic, intricately madcap Kill! is a multitoned send-up of samurai film lore. With its crosshatched plot stitching, zigzag modulations, and dust-blown stock figures (Tatsuya Nakadai as a hobo swordsman, plus a peasant bumpkin turned would-be samurai, a dispossessed . . .
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