Killing

The comparison between westerns and samurai films is quickly made. But where a good cowboy film offers almost innocent entertainment for a lazy Sunday afternoon, many samurai dramas are often a bit more intense. This is also the case in Killing. But what else would you expect with such a title.

In Killing we return to the end of the Edo period. The young samurai Mokunoshin Tsuzuki hides as an inexperienced warrior in a small village of rice farmers. He helps them in the fields, flirts with the daughter of the family where he is staying and trains her little brother in fighting with sticks. This relative peace is disturbed by a gang of bandits, but also by the arrival of the experienced warrior Jirozaemon Sawamura, a role that director Shinya Tsukamoto himself plays. Does Mokunoshin have what it takes to become a real samurai? You will discover it in this unpolished film full of revenge and madness.

Anyone who would like to recover after this raw film is more than welcome in the Skoop Café for a sake or umeshu.

All images: © 2018 “Killing”