MovieChat Forums > Goyôkin (1969) Discussion > One of the best and most poignant samura...

One of the best and most poignant samurai films.


What makes this film one of the great samurai films ever made was how moving and heartfelt was how Nadakai's character struggles with and ultimately discards the samurai code and do the decent and honorable thing after spending years regretting his prior inaction in preventing the massacre at the hands of his Tenba's scheming and avaricious best friend/comrade-in-arms.

On a film level, Goyokin was also one of the last truly great samurai films done in the classical style a la Kurosawa. Afterwards, it was all downhill for the genre when they upped the sex and violence quotient as in the Lone Wolf and Cub and Hanzo The Razor series in the 1970s.

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Agreed. For me, his performance is right up there with his one for Sword of Doom. This is one of my favorite two or three samurai films.

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I agree and I agree with you on the 6 Lone Wolf and Cub films but the 1970’s Lone Wolf and Cub TV show, which has actor Kinnosuke Nakamura playing Ogami Itto is a whole different story, there far better than the films.

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Agree with you both on all the points you covered. I also thought Nakadai-san was great in this film as well delivering a multi-faceted ronin. The only other film where Nakadai (as a bushi character) made me feel his emotions was Harakiri.

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I actually think this film is the perfect bridge between Kurosawa and the exploitation-style chanbara of the 1970s. Even Gosha's later films all have copious amounts of blood.

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I totally agree with you, and would add that it's beautiful, visually - very well shot. A pity it's not better known.

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