Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice

Wow - I have seen many Japanese sword films, many weird sexual exploitation movies but this one - where it combines so many genres (plus a film score that Issac Hayes would be proud of)this film is an oddity but also lots of fun. Hanzo is a tough cop who refuses to follow orders from his superiors. He is tough, he tortures HIMSELF to become even tougher. The actor is a bit pudgy with a double chin but his eyes - he is the real deal. Intense, a real bad ass. Another way he toughens himself up is to slam his own male member with a cane and then have sex with a huge burlap bag of rice (makes me think twice of ordering rice in a Japanese restaurant)- then when he needs to "interrogate" female suspects and/or witnesses - he uses his toughened flesh "sword" to get the women to comply. Strange, weird. The violence goes from clumsy to very real. My film group really liked it.

No pun intended with my summary line. I actually did expect something along the lines of "Zatoichi" when I watched this at a local cinema, as part of Retrospective. Well I was in for a treat (and if you have seen the movie, you do know what I'm talking about), because it is anything but that.

I like Zatoichi-style action, don't get me wrong and there is quite a bit of action on display here. But mainly the "sword of justice" might be something else than you'd expect. Unless you know what you are getting into that is. Speaking of "getting into" ... well better not, I don not want to get to graphic here. The movie is doing more than a good job, so I leave it to the film to blow your mind (if you can get your head around the idea and weirdness of it all, that is). The ending did seem a bit rushed though ... but I guess that happened for a reason.

Samurai Shaft. Someone else grabbed that before I could, but the music in this film is unmistakable. Its as if Isaac Hayes himself scored the film.

The Samurai is a policeman, and has more in his bag of tricks that the usual Samurai swords. In fact, even when he is completely naked, he still has a formidable weapon to use in his unusual interrogations.

It doesn't just hang there either. He actually works it out. He beats it with a stick and rams it into what looks like a bag of pebbles to strengthen it. You just have to see it.

Of course, this wouldn't work if he had to interrogate males, so there are plenty of females that need to feel the long arm of the law. When he gets going, they will say anything to keep him from stopping.

Samurai exploitation? It appears that way. This is one Japanese film that will not be remade by Hollywood. I can't wait for Part 2.

Misumi seems ill-at-ease doing a kind of extremely cartoonish and lurid sexploitation film where the emphasis is on Hanzo's 'interrogating' techniques (read forced sex which the victims end up enjoying so much they spill everything he needs to know as a constable - how's that for PC?) rather than anything resembling a samurai movie. That's probably why it verges on the incomprehensible and the experimentations with style and form are as disjointed as the silly script against which they're supposed to work as diversions. In one of the greatest strokes of irony in Japanese cinema, where Misumi failed, Yasuzo Masumura (a director know for more art-house fare) succeeded beyond all expectations in the second entry of the Hanzo series, basically by doing what Misumi opted to avoid: a serioud dark movie. The kind of film Misumi made a career out of.

Hanzo 'The Razor' Itami is a police officer and takes a stand against the corruption he sees in the police force, causing friction with his boss. He learns that a banished criminal, Kanbei, is still at large and that his boss may be in on the deception.

A cop drama with a difference. Quite B-grade in terms of plot - it's quite contrived and unfocused - but some some-plots are off-the-charts weird and perverse. This adds a comical aspect to proceedings (not sure if that was the intention, though) which is quite entertaining.

Some good action scenes too as well as solid performances, especially Shintaro Katsu as Hanzo, add to the entertainment and engagement value.