4 Star

Honour and Dedication.

From an illustrious career that started in 1922-1970 Arrow Academy brings Tomu Uchida‘s (Twilight Saloon, Sword in the Moonlight) 1955 Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji, a tale of a Samurai and his two servants as they make their way to Edo and their encounters on the way. This film made Daisuke Katō (Seven Samurai, Street of Shame) the 1956 Blue Ribbon Award winner for best supporting actor.

Samurai Sakawa Kojūrō (Teruo Shimada (credited as Eijirō Kataoka) lives in the Edo period (1603-1868) and he is travelling the dusty roads to Edo with his two servants Genta (Daisuke Katō)  and Genpachi (Chiezō Kataoka, The Master Spearman, The Shogun’s Vault) his spear carrier.

In these times the Samurai is a highly regarded member of society and they must uphold etiquette at all times, but Sakawa doesn’t see it that way and has a benevolent demeanour towards his servants and they all get on well together.

I am not going into the story of the film as it would spoil this road trip, but along the way they meet a police man after a notorious thief, a female Shamisen player (Chizuru Kitagawa, The Black Hooded Man) and her daughter (Chie Ueki), a man taking his daughter (Yuriko Tashiro, The Seven Vows) to be sold into prostitution due to lack of funds. Genpachi gains Jiro (Motoharu Ueki) an orphaned young boy who wants to become a Samurai. A secretive man Tōzaburō (Ryunosuke Tsukigata, Knightly Advice) and a pilgrim (Eitarō Shindō, Warrior of the Wind).

Watch as they overcome trials and tribulations of other people lives and the dangers that surround them at any moment or random tea ceremonies.

Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is the perfect way to get into this celebrated directors body of work.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original uncompressed mono audio
Optional newly translated English subtitles
Brand-new audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, recorded exclusively for this release
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Corey Brickley
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic and filmmaker James Oliver

Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is available on Blu-ray