Tags
Language
Tags
<<
April 2024
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
31 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 1 2 3 4
  1. Home
  2. Movies

Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: 7 Jul 2011 13:22:30
Incident at Blood Pass (1970)
(3240 x 2175)

Incident at Blood Pass / Machibuse (1970)
DVD9 | ISO | NTSC 16:9 (720x480) | 01:57:26 | 6,98 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Action, Drama | Japan

The final Yojimbo film, 'Incident at Blood Pass' came about as two of Japan's greatest stars collide when Mifune Toshiro (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo) buts heads with Katsu Shintaro (Zatoichi). The film's Japanese title, MACHIBUSE, means ambush, and that is indeed what waits for Mifune's wandering samurai after he is hired for a mysterious mission. In fact, he is not even given any information about the mission, but only told to be at an old tea house at the top of a pass at a certain time. There, he butts heads with Katsu, a gang of bandits, and a convoy of Shogunate gold as two of Japan's finest film actors and a rousing score make this one of the most entertaining samurai films of the 1970s.

IMDB

Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, Machibuse is the second of two films from 1970 to star both Toshiro Mifune and Shintaro Katsu, the other being Yojimbo Vs. Zatoichi, an installment in the famed Zatoichi series. Incident at Blood Pass is the better of the two in my opinion, with vastly superior direction and an interesting ensemble cast. The literal English translation of Machibuse is Ambush, and that sums up the film pretty accurately.

Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

A cross-section of characters happen to meet at an Inn, operated by an old man and his granddaughter. These include a nameless Ronin (Toshiro Mifune), a crooked gambler/wanderer who is trying to go straight, a cynical law-keeping officer and his captured criminal, a shifty ex-doctor (Shintaro Katsu) and an abused runaway wife. The Ronin has been given vague instructions to wait there for something to happen and he does just that, resting and enjoying their tough-as-nails sake. When he discovers that his mission is to assist a gang in stealing the Shogunate's gold, he is ordered to kill the innocent inhabitants of the inn, including a beautiful woman he rescued from an abusive husband. All is not what it seems however, and the whole scheme turns out to be a double cross aimed at shafting the gang leader. The Ronin may have to choose between his honor and the affections of a beautiful woman.
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.

Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

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.

Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

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.

Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

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.

Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

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.
John Shatzer, gutmunchers.com
Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

Extras:
- Original Theatrical trailer
- Cast & Crew Filmography
- Character Biography
- Interactive program notes
Incident at Blood Pass (1970)

Download:




Interchangable links.
All Thanks goes to wesman
Welcome to My Blog!

No More Mirrors.
Download full movie Incident at Blood Pass (1970)
Subtitles (from opensubtitles.org)
UPWARDS