Sword of Desperation

The release of Hideyuki Hirayama's Sword of Desperation (Hisshiken torisashi, 2012) on the AnimEigo DVD label - whose back catalogue includes such gory samurai classics as the Sleepy Eyes of Death, Zatoichi, and the Lone Wolf & Cub series - may lead some to believe it to be a standard issue chambara film with wall to wall swordplay, which would excite expectations in the wrong direction. The exquisitely crafted Toei production, set during the Edo period and concerning the redemption of a swordsman (sad-eyed Etsushi Toyokawa) who has been put under house arrest for a year for the crime of murdering his master's favorite courtesan, is a remarkably painterly piece of work, deliberately paced and art directed to the nth degree, with many of the camera setups having the palate pleasing aspect of the Flemish Masters. Preoccupied with the characteristic concerns of honor, duty, and loyalty, the film teases out the intricacies of court politics, focusing on such small matters as the correct positioning of hands to open a shoji screen and the larger concerns of fealty and obligation versus love and true devotion - but genre fans rest assured that Sword of Desperation also tenders moments of startling and graphic violence, from a relatively modest stabbing conducted in the first reel to an extended setpiece near the end in which blood spatters arterially on rice paper walls and a character takes on several skilled attackers single-handed, with predictably gory results. Sword of Desperation was adapted by Hidehiro Ito and Itaru Era from a novel by Tomeji Kosuge. Under the nom-de-plume of Shûhei Fujisawa, the former journalist published over fifty novels and short story collections but his death at age 69 in 1997 denied him the opportunity to see such film adaptations of his works as Yôji Yamada's The Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei, 2002) and The Hidden Blade (Kakushi ken oni no tsume, 2004) and Mitsuo Kurotsuchi's The Samurai I Loved (Semishigure, 2005). Characteristic of the works of Kosuge/Fujisawa, Sword of Desperation is low-key and languid, concerned with the tension between the beauty of nature and the ugliness of ambition and greed and fascinated less in the physical damage men and women can do to one another than in the psychological torment engendered by humiliation and uncertainty. One of the principle pleasures of Sword of Desperation is the slow burn of its character motivation, with the audience left dangling as to the reason Toyokawa's lethal but egoless infantry captain in kills the lover (Megumi Seki) of his fief lord (Jun Murakami) and that of his superiors in sparing him from being beheaded. The onion peel revelations deepen rather than cheapen the recipe, giving Sword of Desperation and almost film noir-like crawl to the inevitable blood reckoning. AnimEigo's anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) region 1 DVD of Sword of Desperation looks very fine, with superb skin tones and vivid (though often intentionally understated) chromatics, especially in brief scenes that show the passage of time. The Japanese 5.1 Dolby Surround mix is very satisfying, with pleasing separation of sound (which pays off when the swords are finally drawn from their sheaths). The Japanese audio track is augmented by optional English subtitles, in white or yellow. Extras include helpful liner notes, an image gallery of 27 photos and trailers for other titles available from the honorable folks at AnimEigo. For more information about Sword of Desperation, visit AnimEigo. by Richard Harland Smith