Yôen dokufu-den: Okatsu kyôjô tabi

This third film in the trilogy begins with a group of farmers being brutally beaten and used for slave labor by samurai under the leadership of a man named "Judayu Tashiro" (Hisaya Ito). It is then revealed that the reason for this abuse is because Judayu has just created an illegal tobacco smuggling ring, and he is abusing the farmers as a means to an end. The scene then shifts to a young woman named "Okatsu" (Junko Miyazono) being happily betrothed by her father "Makabe" (Akitake Kono) to a young samurai by the name of "Shinzaburo" (Yataro Kitagami). But just prior to that, it is revealed that Makabe has become aware of the cruelty perpetuated by Judayu Tashiro to the farmers--along with the smuggling operation--and has decided to appeal directly to him to get him to stop. What he doesn't realize, however, is the lengths that Judayu is willing to go to keep his illegal business functioning, and that by revealing what he knows, Makabe has put his whole family at risk. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film had absolutely no connection to either the first or second film in the trilogy and was--rather than being a continuation of the same story--a generally lackluster retelling of that story instead. In other words, although all three films are marketed as a trilogy, none of them actually take up where the last one left off, or even relate to one another. Although I cannot say why this is the case, what I do know is that each of these films has Junko Miyazono as the main actress, and she performs quite well in all three. That said, however, it wasn't enough to overcome what was essentially an unimaginative plot, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.