Samurai Spy (Ibun Sarutobi Sasuke, 1965)

Shinoda Masahiro

Japan

100 min, black and white, Japanese (English subtitles)

Review © 2005 Branislav L. Slantchev

Ever since I saw Double Suicide, Shinoda has been on my get-everything-by-this-guy list. So imagine my delight when Criterion decided to release this film... what turned out to be a truly bizarre entry in the chambara genre. I am still unsure about this film. I think I liked it, but I do not know why. I know why I should not have liked it though. Samurai Spy is really an artsy political intrigue/love story that masquerades as a ninja flick with some reality-defying stunts.

Sasuke always in a fog	A typical stance

The Criterion DVD comes with a handy booklet that lists all the main characters, and the disc itself has a cast description! This is the first time I have seen anything like it, but pretty soon into the film one starts to appreciate the nice folks at Criterion for thoughtfully providing a roadmap to the various clans, spies, maybe-spies, spies-wannabes, spies-in-the-making, ex-spies, and dead spies. I mean, this film has a character count that can rival anything Tolkien put out, and even seems to approach some of the goofier Chinese epics in sheer volume of people with names whose loyalties viewers must track very closely.

Some gravity-defying leaps	The melancholy dancer Okiwa

As far as I could tell, there are two main rival clans, the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi (the film is set fourteen years after the Battle of Sekigahara and right before the siege of Osaka, so the Tokugawa are still battling for supremacy), and a third clan, the Sanada, that sits on the fence, trying to figure out which of the two will be the winning horse to mount. Sasuke (Takahashi Koji) is of the Sanada, and is currently roaming the country in search of information for his lord. We are not told just what sort of info he's looking for, but pretty soon it does not matter for he finds himself deep in a conspiracy that he will never untangle.

Love and fear in feudal Japan	Meeting Omiyo at the temple

The film begins very atmospherically, with Sasuke running through a field enveloped in dense fog. He says that he is always on the run, and as we shall learn, he is does not know why he's doing what he is doing, he has stopped asking questions, and the fog symbolizes his confusion, and the absurdity of living a life without awareness. An unexamined life is not worth living said Socrates (I hope), and this is the conclusion that Sasuke will eventually reach. As a samurai, he is the then-new (1965) type of character that does not seem to care particularly either about his clan or his lord, who sort of just does various tasks and often does not behave according to the idealized Bushido code. He is not a ronin for his clan is quite well, and he is not a yakuza. Neither an outcast, nor a traditional samurai, he occupies the murky ground in between where one can just as easily take the corrupt path to destruction or the noble road to... often destruction too.

Sasuke on the long road to nowhere	Still life

Sasuke soon learns that an important spy for the Tokugawa clan, Tatewaki (Okada Eiji), has decided to defect to the Osaka faction, and that he is being assisted by one Mitsuaki (Toura Mutsuhiro). That is, the latter is only ostensibly assisting the defector. This Mitsuaki character is one unscrupulous and quite disagreeable guy, having not only set up an innocent Christian samurai to take the fall for him but also planning to betray Tatewaki as soon as he collects his reward. He asks Sasuke for help and it is not at all obvious that the latter is averse to laying his grubby hands on the tons of cash the venture seems likely to bring. But before they can put the plan into motion, someone kills Mitsuaki, and the hapless Sasuke finds himself a murder suspect.

Omiyo barely containing herself	The kidnapping of the orphan girl

Various people try to milk him for information: both the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi people believe that he knows Tatewaki's whereabouts, and they try everything to get him to reveal them. They even arrange for the beautiful dancer Okiwa (Watanabe Misako) to seduce him even though she is not the "type." Sasuke falls hard for her immediately, but the relationship is doomed from the beginning: he knows she is a spy, and she knows he does; even their love-making is laced with suppressed anger on his part and barely concealed fear on her. Yet, fall for her he does, and when she is murdered by the unknown assailant, Sasuke undergoes a drastic change: his new purpose will be to track down the killer and dispatch him to whatever Elysian field the people in this business end up in.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend	More ninja than samurai

It is not a deep goal, but it is better than the nihilist existence he used to have. But before he can do anything about it, he meets another girl, the orphan Omiyo (Yoshimura Jitsuko), who immediately takes to him body and soul. Oblivious to her feelings, Sasuke rattles off a list of things he's done to Okiwa, and causes her to run away from him and straight into the hands of the authorities who have come to arrest Sasuke on suspicion of the two murders. All they manage to do is kidnap Omiyo although it's not exactly clear why they should do anything to her. At any rate, to save this damsel in distress, Sasuke divulges all his information to the Tokugawa master spy Takatani (Tanba Tetsuro).

Escape from the Suwa dungeon	Sasuke fights the sinister Takatani

The rescue is beautifully staged, and Sasuke even manages to free the Christian samurai in the process. It is only at this point that the mysterious goings on finally get a proper explanation as the secret background of Tatewaki, and his relationship to the Christian samurai, are both revealed. Everything falls into place, Sasuke finally acquires a higher calling in life: he is no longer unsure what it is that he is supposed to do. Resolved to help the Suwa clan instead, he plunges back into the Toyotomi conspiracy, and finally locates the elusive Tatewaki. Of course, helping him elude both rival clans makes him an enemy of both the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi, which occasions the explosive duel with the ruthless Takatani and the unknown murdered whose identity I will not reveal.

The blood of a master spy	Gratuitous shot of Yoshimura Jitsuko

Ostensibly a chambara film, Samurai Spy will disappoint anyone who is looking for something like the Zatoichi or Sleepy Eyes of Death fare. Shinoda being what he is, the film often feels like a theater staged in front of a frequently static camera. The director makes heavy use of long shots, off-center framing, unusual camera angles, and jerky editing. The visuals absolutely dominate this film, from the architectural detail often barely visible in the murky noir-style lighting, to the expressive close-ups that leave the camera so close to the faces that one can literally see the small hairs on the guys' chins. The acting, especially by the two women, is top-notch, but since the protagonist spends most of his time being confused (something with which I could relate), he does not get to portray more than the narrowest range of emotions. The pacing is quite deliberate for this type of film and if it weren't for the stunning visuals, the outing would have dragged. As it was, the combination of odd cuts and Takemitsu's music score made it worth watching.

Sasuke out-maneuvered but unbowed	Random shot of Yoshimura Jitsuko

There are many things I like about Shinoda's directing, but what really struck me about this film was the meticulous attention to aural detail. I was particularly impressed with the background sounds during some rather tense moments: characters would be in a stand-off that is likely to end with one of them dying, there would be total silence, and then one would hear the rustling of feet sliding on the ground and the chirping of birds, the latter so incongruous that it made the scene even more full of pathos for only then can we take the place of the character about to die: unless we come close to feeling the sense of loss as his fleeting life leaves his body, we cannot understand his end. And as some people say, it is the losers that are more important in these stories.

About to finally cut through the fog	The unseen enemy is the worst

The Criterion DVD is pretty damn good, and I am glad they gave this film the attention it deserves. The booklet comes with an essay by Alain Silver, the author of the one book on samurai films I have read. In addition to the aforementioned helpful character gallery, there is a 15-minute interview with Shinoda, in which he discusses some aspects of his start in the movies, and what it was like to work with the composer, and so on. Not the most informative thing out there, but nevertheless a welcome extra that beats the 2-minute mockery of an interview on the Samurai Rebellion DVD.

November 10, 2005