Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)

Tetsuro Tamba (丹波哲郎), Tetsuya Watari (渡哲也) and Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子) in The Code Of Man (男の掟), 1968, directed by Mio Ezaki (江崎実生).

TANGE SAZEN: THE ONE-EYED SWORDSMAN (1963).

Tetsuro Tanba, the hardest working man in Japanese cinema, returned to the role he played in a television series from 1958.   This film was yet another variation of The Million Ryo Pot, which was the basis for many a Sazen film before and since, but this time the object everyone is scrambling to find is a very valuable sword.

Tanba-san’s Sazen in this film deviates from the usual appearance of the character: Sazen is missing his left eye and arm, as opposed to the usual right eye and arm (I have no idea if Tanba-san did this in the TV series; I haven’t been able to find any episodes).  There is speculation that this was to allow Tanba-san, who was not known for his sword fighting skills, to use his right arm.  Presumably teaching him how to fight using his left arm would’ve been too difficult and time consuming.

Sazen was also a more serious character this time around, as opposed to the lovable, wise cracking curmudgeon he’d been portrayed as during the previous thirty years.  That’s not to say that there wasn’t humor in the film, but Sazen was not the source of any of it.  

The film’s ending left the door open for more stories, but the Japanese audiences did not take this version of Tange Sazen to heart, so there was no sequel.

Still, if the Japanese were not happy with this new Tange Sazen, they were completely unprepared for Kinnosuke Nakamura’s unhinged madman in The Secret of the Urn a few years down the line.

Tokyo: The Last War (1989)

Castle of Sand (1974), dir. Yoshitaro Nomura

Is there really such a thing as happiness in this world? I don't think it's ever truly existed. What people are chasing is an illusion.

The 7th DAWN (1964) - HOWARD TERPNING’s MOVIE POSTER PAINTINGS (Part 7/10)

Another superb portrait and composition by HOWARD TERPNING for this little known Far East Asian Post WW2 action drama with a great William Holden

Above are posters from the US and Japan (click on each image for details)

BRING BACK MOVIE POSTER ART!!!

Director: Lewis Gilbert  Actors: William Holden, Capucine, Tetsuro Tanba, Susannah York

All our HOWARD TERPNING posters are here

If you like this entry, check the other 9 parts of this week’s Blog as well as our Blog Archives

All our NEW POSTERS are here

All our ON SALE posters are here

The posters above courtesy of ILLUSTRACTION GALLERY

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE 1967

US lobby card

Tetsuro Tanba, Mie Hama, Sean Connery

Tatsuya Nakadai in The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan (Masahiro Shinoda, 1970) Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Shima Iwashita, Tetsuro Tanba, Shoichi Ozawa, Fumio Watanabe, Suisen Ichikawa, Masakane Yonekura, Jun Hamamura. Screenplay: Shuji Terayama, based on a play by Mokuami Kawatake. Cinematography: Kozo Okazaki. Art direction: Shigemasa Toda. Film editing: Yoshi Sugihara. Music: Masaru Sato. I think I was culturally ill-equipped for The Scandalous Adventures of Buraikan, a wittily stylized film that presupposes an acquaintance with Japanese history and culture that I don't possess. From my own culture, I bring a knowledge of 18th-century portrayals of London lowlife, such as the pictures of Hogarth and the satire in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Buraikan has echoes for me of those, as well as, in its portrayal of the puritanical reformer's zeal, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. But for much of the film I felt at sea. That said, I like Tatsuya Nakadai so much I'd watch him read the Tokyo telephone book. 

The Castle of Sand / Suna no utsuwa (1974, Yoshitarō Nomura)

砂の器　（野村芳太郎）

3/5/22

沈黙 - Silence (Masahiro Shinoda, 1971)

Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)

Lobby card for Army Intelligence 33 (Rikugun Choho 33, 陸軍諜報３３), 1968, directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi (小林恒夫) and starring Sonny Chiba (千葉真一) and Tetsuro Tanba (丹波哲郎).

Tetsuro Tanba, the hardest working man in Japanese film (it’s said he never turned down a role), as Tange Sazen in One-Eyed, One-Armed Swordsman (1963).

This film is yet another remake of The Million Ryo Pot, based on the first Tange Sazen novel (Sazen had previously appeared as a supporting - but very popular - character in another series of stories) and first filmed in 1935.  This production managed to put its own spin on the oft-told tale.

The story always involves the Yagyu Clan, whose members were advisors and/or sword trainers to the shogun.  This time, instead of just a guy who gets involved with the search for a valuable object belonging to the Yagyu (a sword this time, instead of a pot), Tange Sazen is revealed to be a long-lost member of the clan.  No one recognizes him because of the loss of his eye and arm, and he doesn’t reveal his identity to them, preferring his life as a wandering ronin.

Tange Sazen films since 1935′s The Million Ryo Pot had a decidedly comedic side, with many of the characters mugging and playing for laughs.  Ryutaro Otomo, the actor associated most with Tange Sazen after Denjiro Okochi, had played a softer, friendlier Sazen, who wasn’t afraid to get in on the fun. 

Otomo-san’s long series of Tange Sazen films ended in 1962.  New studio Shochiko and director Seiichiro Uchikawwa decided to try a more serious, darker tone with the character.  This was a trend that was slowly taking hold of  jidaigeki and chanbara films, and would continue throughout the decade.  This isn’t to say there isn’t any humor, or that Tange Sazen is any less the heroic figure he has always been.  However, the film is definitely a more dramatic turn for the series.

Tanba-san also provides a physically different appearance to Tange Sazen.  The character had always been presented as having lost his right eye and arm; Tanba-san’s Sazen is missing his left eye and arm.  There are theories regarding why this was done, from using the change to show filmgoers that this was a different Tange Sazen than they were used to seeing, to it being too difficult or production not having enough time to train Tanba-san to use his left arm for sword fighting (a skill he wasn’t known for).

This was not Tanba-san’s first time playing Tange Sazen.  He had played the role for one season of a television series that ran from 1958 to 1959 on NTV.  I have found very little information on that series.  I assume, however, since it ran while Otomo-san’s films were being released, that Tanba-san portrayed a more traditional Tange Sazen - comedic and missing the right eye and arm.

One-Eyed, One-Armed Swordsman ended like a Zatoichi film, with our hero hitting the road after the climatic battle.  This was definitely leaving the door open for a sequel (or sequels), but they never manifested. 

Seppuku aka Harakiri (1962), dir. Masaki Kobayashi

“JHorror Project” opens their Twitter page and website! Their goal is to bring horror works to the world.

With their first tweet, they reveal that their first project will entail voice actors hosting online reading sessions of Ito’s stories, beginning August 27th through the 30th. One story per day, for four consecutive nights, including “Glyceride”, “the Hanging Balloons”, “the Groaning Drain”, and “the Ice-cream Truck”.

In addition, there’ll be a crowdfund to support a collaboration between Junji Ito and actor/director Junji Inagawa (”Shinrei”, “Rinbu”, and “Tanba Tetsuro no Daireikai Shindara Odoroita!!”), where Ito’s “Amabie” illustrations will also be distributed in return, complete with a seal hand-carved by Ito himself!