In exchange for board and lodging, samurai Mokunoshi assists a couple of village farmers. When the ronin Sawamura suddenly appears and asks Mokunoshi to go on a mission, while at the same time a group of bandits are stalking the farms, the peaceful existence of the village comes under threat.

Destabilizing the conventions of samurai cinema with his jagged montage style, Shin’ya Tsukamoto brings a feral wildness—and a synth score!—to his first period film. An ultra-violent parable written in blood, Killing cuts through the trappings of honor and masculinity with startling subversiveness.