Kill!
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| Kill! | |
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| Directed by | Kihachi Okamoto |
| Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Written by | Shugoro Yamamoto Akira Murao Kihachi Okamoto |
| Starring | Tatsuya Nakadai Etsushi Takahashi Naoko Kubo Shigeru Kôyama |
| Music by | Masaru Satô |
| Cinematography | Rokuro Nishigaki |
| Distributed by | Toho Company Ltd. |
| Release date(s) | June 22, 1968 (Japanese release) |
| Running time | 115 min. |
| Language | Japanese |
| IMDb profile | |
Kill! (斬る) is a 1968 film directed by Kihachi Okamoto, written by Akira Murao, Kihachi Okamoto, and Shugoro Yamamoto and starring Tatsuya Nakadai.
[edit] Cast
- Tatsuya Nakadai .... Genta (Hyodo Yagenta)
- Etsushi Takahashi .... Hanji (Hanjiro Tabata)
- Naoko Kubo .... Tetsutaro Oikawa
- Shigeru Kôyama .... Ayuzama
- Akira Kubo .... Monnosuke Takei
- Seishiro Kuno .... Daijiro Masataka
- Tadao Nakamaru .... Shoda Magobei
- Eijirô Tono .... Moriuchi Hiyogo
- Isao Hashimoto .... Konosuke Fujii
- Yoshio Tsuchiya .... Matsuo Shiroku
Tatsuya Nakadai stars as Genta, a former samurai who became disillusioned with the samurai lifestyle and left it behind to become a wandering yakuza (gang) member. He meets Hanjiro Tabata (Etsushi Takahashi) a farmer who wants to become a samurai to escape his powerless existence. Genta and Tabata wind up on opposite sides of clan intrigue when seven members of a local clan assassinate their chancellor. Although the seven, led by Tetsutaro Oikawa (Naoko Kubo) rebelled with the support of their superior, Ayuzama (Shigeru Kôyama), he turns on them and sends members of the clan to kill them as outlaws.
The film is an exploration of what it is to be a samurai, with a number of characters in the movie either giving up samurai status or fighting to get it. Samurai are seen behaving both honorably and very badly.
[edit] Trivia
- Kill! is based on Shugoro Yamamoto's novel Peaceful Days, the same source as for Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro.
- The film shares some common scenes (for example, the beating scene) with Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, which was in turn inspired by Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
[edit] External links
- Kill! at the Internet Movie Database
- Criterion Collection essay by Howard Hampton
- Criterion Collection essay by Chris D.
| Preceded by: Pickpocket |
The Criterion Collection 313 |
Succeeded by: Samurai Spy |
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