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Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
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The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this collection play out.
Killer’s Mission:
The first film introduces us to Shikoro Ichibei (Tomisaburo Wakayama) who is a swordsman/doctor and bounty hunter sent by the Shogunate to a seaside province that has met with a Dutch navy man and his crew. The reason behind this meeting? The Dutch have agreed to supply the Satsuma Clan, in charge of the aforementioned province, with guns and ammunition to be used to take down the rival Tokugawa Clan and the Shogunate.
As Ichibei makes his trek to the coast, he meets all manner of characters, the most important being Kagero (Yumiko Nogawa), a mysterious female assassin with a penchant for gadgetry and covert operations. There definitely seems to be an attraction between the swordsman and this female killer, but before they can investigate that they'll have to team up with a few other characters to try and figure out the real motives behind the Dutch meddling in local affairs, all while the Roju Council, who have the Shogun's ear, send in a spy of their own to oversee things.
A seriously entertaining mix of period samurai action, James Bond-inspired spy tropes, Spaghetti Western-esque visuals and even some really well-played parody (at one point Tomisaburo Wakayama does a remarkably dead-on impersonation of Zatoichi, the character made famous by his brother Shintaro Katsu in score of films), Killer’s Mission may not feature the most original storyline ever committed to screen but that doesn’t wind up mattering much when the movie is as genuinely fun as this one is.
Shigehiro Ozawa, probably best known for directing Sonny Chiba in The Street Fighter films, provides strong direction while the pacing over the film’s ninety minute run time moving at a good clip and offering up the right mix of action, suspense, drama and surprisingly effective humor. Tomisaburo Wakayama is at the center of all of this, delivering genuinely excellent turn as the lead in the film, strutting across the screen with plenty of enthusiasm and charisma, handling himself well in the action set pieces and definitely giving you the impression that he’s legitimately deadly with a sword long before he proved it in the Lone Wolf & Cub films for which he remains best known.
The Fort Of Death:
The second film in the set really wears the Spaghetti Western influence right from the start, where our hero drags a man behind him on his horse while sporting a brimmed head and smoking a cigarillo. Complete with a Wild Bunch finish involving a Gatling Gun, the story this time takes place around Enoki Village where the government plans to coerce the farmers that live there into providing free (albeit, forced) labor in their attempts to rebuild what's left of Edo Castle.
After attacking the village and trying to starve its inhabitants into submission, the government puts a massive tax in place and executes anyone who doesn't pay up. The inhabitants decide that, rather than take this lying down, they'll turn the village into a fortress and, to help them out further, hire Shikoro Ichibei and his crew to help fend off the army that the government is certain to send after them, and while Shikoro Ichibei may have brought the aforementioned Gatling Gun with him, there’s a gang of ninjas led by a one-eyed man named Otohei out to put a stop to all of this.
Owing more than a small debt to Seven Samurai, The Fort Of Death is a really solid action film that can’t help but wear its influences on its sleeve. Directed this time around by Kudo Eiichi but made the same year as the first movie in the set (likely to cash in on that earlier film’s box office success), the movie once again plays off of Tomisaburo Wakayama’s charisma and star power. Although it does frequently feel more like a Spaghetti Western than a chambara movie – particularly in its opening scene where Ichibei guns down a horde of bandits out to attack him – the pace is rock solid here and the movie has a really enjoyable energy to it that makes it a treat to watch.
As the movie builds up to a remarkably tense final reel, viewers really get a chance to appreciate the quality of the fight choreography, the rock-solid camerawork and the strong performance from the film’s lead. Killer’s Mission might have been the one that started it all but The Fort Of Death is damn near a masterpiece and easily the best of the three very good films in this set.
Eight Men To Kill:
The third and final film, made in 1972, once again puts Shigehiro Ozawa in the director’s chair. In this installment, Shikoro Ichibei is tasked with finding out what happened to a huge shipment of gold that was stolen from the Shogunate by Yasha Okami. This gold was to be used to create currency in Japan and not having it on hand to just that will lead to all manner of problems for those in power.
Ichibei has to move quickly on this, those who hired him expect the gold to be brought back to them in only five days and before a solar eclipse is slated to occur. Of course, as he tracks it down, he runs into a colorful cast of oddball characters, some of whom are out to find the gold for themselves no matter what it takes, including a seductive but self-serving beauty named Omon leading our hero to team up with a young woman named Tendo out to avenge the brother she lost in the initial gold theft.
Easily the bloodiest and most violent of the three films in the set, this one builds nicely but goes into much darker territory than the other two films, leading to a pretty grim finish. Far less playful than the first two entries, Eight Men To Kill is populated by greedy, narcissistic characters out only for themselves, with Shikoro Ichibei serving as a lynch pin of sorts, holding everything together. Once again, Tomisaburo Wakayama does a great job with this, anchoring the film and delivering another very energetic and charismatic turn in the lead role.
It’s a very different film in tone and structure than the first two picture in the collection, but like the movies that came before it in the run, it’s very nicely shot, set to a good score and features some very intense action set pieces. Ozawa paces the film well and it’s quite well made.
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Blu-ray Review:
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy arrives on Blu-ray from Radiance Films with each film offered up in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer provided by Kadokawa Corporation framed at 2.35.1 widescreen. Killer’s Mission sits on its own 50GB disc, while The Fort Of Death and Eight Men To Kill share a second 50GB disc. There’s a little bit of flicker here and there but aside from that, the transfers are really strong across the board with all three films sharing very similar qualities in terms of picture quality. Colors look really good, nice and natural, as do skin tones and we get nice black levels as well. There’s very little print damage to gripe about, though grain is very definitely present, as it should be. The transfers show no problematic compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction issues while we get plenty of appreciable detail, depth and texture throughout.
The only audio option on the disc is a 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Mono track in Japanese with optional subtitles provided in English only. Dialogue is clean, clear and easy to listen to and the film’s fantastic score sounds excellent. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion and the levels are balanced nicely. The subtitles are easy to read and free of any noticeable typos.
Extras start off with an audio commentary on Killer’s Mission by Tom Mes that goes over the film's release history, the historical setting in which the story takes place and some of the inaccuracies that show up in this department, Toei's role in producing the movie, plenty of details on the cast and crew members that worked on the picture, Shigehiro Ozawa's skills as a director and opinions on the quality of his work, the effect that World War II had on the Japanese film industry, the influence of Spaghetti Westerns and James Bond movies on the film, Wakayama's presence in the film and his life and times, connections to the pink films that would soon come out in Japan a few years later and also to the films of Akira Kurosawa, thoughts on the performances, the state of the Japanese film industry around the time that this movie was made and lots more.
The Killer’s Mission disc also contains a sixteen minute interview with film historian and Shigehiro Ozawa expert Akihito Ito. He speaks about Ozawa's origins and entry into the film business, the genre movie boom that was happening at the time, how he worked his way up doing Yakuza pictures and karate films, how he got in good with the executives at Toei, how he came to work on two of the three films in the Bounty Hunter series, the influence of Spaghetti Westerns, how the action in his karate films differs from his samurai films, the influence of Kazuo Koike's manga, his work on the TV series that the movie inspired as well as his thoughts on Wakayama's work in the series and the script.
A trailer, menus and chapter selections are also included on the first disc.
The second disc, in additions to menus, chapter selection and trailers for each film, also contains a visual essay on Eiichi Kudo by Japanese cinema expert Robin Gatto running eighteen minutes. This piece covers the rise in popularity of chambara films after the Second World War and Toei's place in this, how the studio churned out scores of swordplay films during the boom years of the genre, some of the actors that were involved in these movies, some of the stand out movies from the genre, directors that made an impact on the scene, Tomisaburo Wakayama's place in the genre, outside influences that worked their way into the films and plenty more.
Finishing up the extras is a series poster and press image gallery, trailers for each of the three films in the set, menus and chapter selection options.
Radiance has also gone all out on the packaging for this collection. In addition to the two discs, each of which sits in its own clear Scavano case and comes with reversible cover sleeve art, we get six full color postcards reproducing vintage artwork from the films and a limited edition, full color booklet featuring an essay titled ‘So Many People Are Dead!’ by samurai film expert Alain Silver, an obituary of Eiichi Kudo by Kinji Fukasaku from 2000 and an interview piece on Shigehiro Ozawa conducted after his retirement from filmmaking titled ‘The Decline Of Ninkyo Movies Changed My Life’ that originally appeared in an issue of ‘Shukan Heibon’ in 1980. The booklet also contains cast and crew credits for each film and notes on the transfer. All of this is housed inside a handsome, rigid box with a removable obi strip.
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy - The Final Word:
Radiance Films’ Blu-ray release of The Bounty Hunter Trilogy is a really strong set, presenting three genuinely entertaining and well-made films in excellent presentations and with some quality extra features as well as some beautiful packaging. Highly recommended and essential for Tomisaburo Wakayama fans.
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