Rating: ***
Review Date: 11/1/26
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama
Shinkai Mikuni (Tomisaburo Wakayama) is a Buddhist priest who likes to drink, fight, gamble, and seduce women. His behavior gets him sent to another temple, but it turns out he's just a scapegoat for what the other wicked priests are up to. The main story revolves around a young ruffian who is in love with a prostitute. A crime boss uses their love as leverage to exploit both of them, and Shinkai just happens to get in the way. He doesn't like seeing women mistreated, and he manages to get Kentaro back on the path to righteousness while causing trouble at the local brothel and gambling house. Of course, words and diplomacy won't solve anything, so the escalating violence leads to a showdown where Shinkai has to take out the whole crime organization barehanded.
Structurally, the film resembles the "Zatoichi" series, which starred his brother, Shintaro Katsu, and in many ways it's hard to tell them apart here. It's a good-looking and well-made production, but it's light on action and heavy on drama, which makes the pacing suffer. There's also some goofy humor that doesn't quite work, but that may be a cultural thing. Wakayama is wonderful throughout and shows a wide range of expression, as opposed to his stoic one-note portrayal of Ogami Itto in the superb "Lone Wolf And Cub" series. He even sings the theme song! The fight scenes are sparse and occasionally result in a bloody mess, which is interesting because Shinkai generally only fights with his hands. It's always a surprise to see him give a karate chop to the head and have it erupt in blood. There's only one situation where he fights with a staff, and he's pretty quickly disarmed. While I can't fault the acting, craftsmanship, or production values, I just didn't enjoy the film or the characters that much. Maybe I'll warm up to Shinkai more in the sequels.