violent samurai flix

[Pete Tombs]

Well, it might have been "banned in the UK", but I saw it at the Electric
Cinema Club sometime in  the (mid?) 1970's. Lots of so called "banned"
Japanese movies, including BLACK SNOW were screened in London during the
70's if you were prepared to seek them out in film clubs etc
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> From: Frances Loden <frako at hotmail.com>
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: violent samurai flix
> Date: Saturday, March 13, 1999 10:21 AM
> 
> >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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