The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, February 3-9
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
Okamoto, Japan’s Sam Fuller, made dozens of high-intensity genre films that would be minor classics were they ever re-released. We should count ourselves lucky as a culture that we were given The Sword of Doom to represent his largely ignored body of work. There is no samurai film as dark or bewitching. Tatsuya Nakadai plays a swordsman without a soul, a wraith in search of glory that might patch the hole where all mirth and satisfaction leak out of his heart. He slaughters his way across Japan, joining and abandoning movements as he finds they interfere with his quest to vanquish his weaker self. Okamoto captures every slash of his blade, every thousand-yard stare and every percussive act of abuse with absolutely focus and clarity. The symmetrical framing, high-contrast black and white photography and dynamic sound design bring us as close to Nakadai’s lupine worldview, where every shadow is an opponent and every meeting turns to blood. Sword of Doom is the high water mark of chanbara cinema. Scout Tafoya (February 5, 7pm at Japan Society)