Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

By now it should be no secret that I love Samurai movies.  Two of my favorite actors from these films are Toshirô Mifune, who plays the nameless yojimbo here again and Shintarô Katsu from the Blind Swordsman series that I’ve recently reviewed for the site.  They had already appeared together in Zatoichi meets Yojimbo, which is an excellent entry into that series.  When I heard that they had done this movie together and that Katsu portrays a villain of sorts Incident at Blood Pass went right to the top of my must see list. 

The story here is that Mifune’s Yojimbo is hired for a secret mission.  It is so secret in fact that he is told nothing about it.  He is to head to an Inn and wait for a message that will either send him to one of two locations.  It ends up that he is sent to a mountain pass near an isolated and lonely Inn.  His only instructions are to wait for something to happen.  Along the way he rescues a woman from her abusive husband and takes her along for the journey.  While at the Inn a wounded government man and his prisoner stumble in near death.  The inhabitants of the Inn, the innkeeper, his daughter, a gambler, and a disgraced doctor all quarrel over helping them until Yojimbo forces their hands.  Is this what he was supposed to wait for?  Things are further complicated when the woman’s husband shows up, as well as the bandit gang the prisoner belonged to!  What seems complicated is really simple once things are revealed, though more treachery might still be in the works. 

This might be the most interesting and best-written movie of the Samurai genre that I’ve seen so far. I love mysteries and old dark house type movies where strangers are thrown together by some series of events beyond their control.  Incident at Blood Pass feels very much like one of those movies, with even the main character of the Yojimbo being in the dark as to what is happening.  If that weren’t enough every time you turn around there is another betrayal or bit of intrigue that adds even more layers to the story.  The characters are well written and don’t always act as you would expect them to.  Supposed villains become sympathetic (even though they were still going to kill everyone!) victims of the conspiracy and Yojimbo ends up avenging the bad guy.  The coward actually did run and get help, while the arrogant lawman sees the errors of judging everyone like his father did.  The excellent cast only enhances the writing.  Katsu and Mifune are excellent in their roles, but they aren’t alone.  The cast includes familiar faces such as Yûjirô Ishihara (Shadow Hunters – also reviewed for the site), Kinnosuke Nakamura (Goyokin), and Ruriko Asaoka (also from Goyokin).  Put a cast this good with a script that gives them something to sink their acting skills into and you have a great movie.

The funny thing about Incident at Blood Pass is how little swordplay and fight choreography there is.  Other than a bit towards the end there isn’t much blood in the entire movie.  But it is such a great flick that I don’t think that I ever noticed that until I sat down to write my review.  Me watching a Samurai movie and not paying attention to the swordplay or lack of it ought to tell you just about all you need to know about the writing, characters, and story.  

I highly recommend this movie to anyone.  This is the kind of movie that I think will appeal to both the fans of Japanese cinema as well as those who might not be into the swordplay that normally dominate these movies.  Check out the fine folks over at AnimEigo at their website at http://www.animeigo.com/ for more information. 

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer