Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha’s Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal. There he joins up with a motley group who are illegally mining the shogun’s gold, and, with the aid of another swordsman, gets a chance not just at survival but to recover his name and honor. —The Criterion Collection
A powerful film. The most amazing thing is that at 85 minutes so many things happen that you'd expect from an over two hours film. Beautifully shot, action packed (Im no fan of action scenes so much, but in this one, it was very well made) and good story narration makes this movie a recommendation among other samurai movies.
Really incredible samurai movie, this feels incredibly fresh even today. The photography is great and the action scenes are the best I've ever seen in a samurai movie. The story has some nice twists and turns as well and the script is well written. Overall it was a nice suprise to find an older samurai film that feels like it was made today. Completely recommended!