Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice

Goyôkiba

Japan

1972

94 Min

Color

2.35:1

Japanese

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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PROD Shintarô Katsu, Hiroyoshi Nishioka

SCR Kazuo Koike, Takeshi Kanda

CAST Shintarô Katsu, Yukiji Asaoka, Mari Atsumi, Kô Nishimura, Kamatari Fujiwara

Hanzo is an incorruptible and unorthodox officer in Edo, as famous for his self-discipline and his love shaft as his sword. Against the backdrop of his magistrate’s occasional rounding up of vagrants, Hanzo learns that an infamous killer is no longer on his island prison: did he escape or was he never there? Hanzo’s investigation leads him to the magistrate’s mistress, the killer’s former lover. Hanzo pursues political questions that suggest complicity at the highest levels. Using sexual assault, he interrogates the mistress and later the favorite of Edo’s most powerful woman. Can he get to the bottom of what’s going on before powerful forces get him fired or killed? —IMDb

Director

Kenji Misumi

He debuted as a movie director with “Tange Sazen: Kokezaru no Tsubo (Tange Sazen: The Kokezaru Pot).” He was one of “the Daiei trio” together with Tokuzo Tanaka and Kazuo Ikehiro, who supported the Daiei shooting studio in its prime. He established his position as a great period film director by the “Zatoichi” series starring Shintaro Katsu, and “Ken (The Sword)” and “Nemuri Kyoshiro” series starring Raizo Ichikawa. The spectacular scenes in the film version of “Kozure Okami (Baby Cart)” starring Tomisaburo Wakayama made a big impact on Sam Raimi and others in film industry. He received the 11th Galaxy award for his TV drama “Tenno no Seiki (The century of the emperor).” On September 24, 1975, he died from liver cancer. —horror-house.jp