violent samurai flix

[Frances Loden]

>I'm also writing right now about the "pornography of violence" in 1970s 
samurai flicks, in particular the first Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and 
Cub/Sword of Vengeance, 1972) movie.  I've chosen this movie to 
epitomize a movement towards explicitness and gore in fight scenes in 
the popular samurai movie.  I know that Sanjuro (1962?) has a 
particularly gory final scene, but I can't think of any other movies 
that compare to the Kozure Okami films in terms of gore.  Any 
suggestions?

Dear Sylvia--One film that leaps to mind is Matsumoto Toshio's "Shura" 
(Pandemonium, 1971), which when I saw it was the goriest film I'd ever 
seen, especially because of the baby-stabbing scene.  The film has a 
plot relating to the Chushingura story and is described in English in 
Noel Burch's _To the Distant Observer_ (356-360).

The Weissers in _Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: Horror-Fantasy-Science 
Fiction_ call it "Bloodshed," and say, ". . . the conclusion which 
graphically depicts the killing of an infant, is excessive even by 
liberal Japanese standards.  The movie was officially banned in the UK 
and Australia.  It never showed commercially in America." (38-39)

Video version is deleted.  	I saw it at Pacific Film Archive in the 
early- to mid-1980s.
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