Cinema
Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
血槍富士
Tomu Uchida · 1955
Synopsis
The samurai Sakawa Kojūrō travels to Edo with two servants, Genta and Genpachi, his spear-bearer. A good master, he changes when he has been drinking. On the road, they meet a singer and her child, a pilgrim, a policeman on the trail of a thief, a suspicious man and a father ready to sell his daughter; a young orphan, Jirō, follows Genpachi because he wants to carry the spear in his turn, according to Video Librarian. PopMatters sees it as a peaceful, often comic road story in which the drinking samurai calls ranks into question.
Context
It is the director's first film after his return from China, according to Senses of Cinema, which states that Itō Daisuke, the pioneer of the sword film, assisted the production; PopMatters reports that it was launched thanks to the solidarity of former colleagues. The screenplay is by Mimura Shintarō, Fuji Yahiro and Tamikado Toshio, from an idea by Inoue Kintarō, and Tōei released it on 27 February 1955. The violence erupts only in the last minutes.
Who it is for
Ninety-four minutes, in black and white, closer to a road narrative than to sword combat. A version with English subtitles exists.
Prizes and reception
Katō Daisuke, who plays the servant, won a best supporting actor prize for it in 1956, and the film was shown again in New York in 2016.
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