[quote="Jeff Stafford at "Turner Classic Movies""]Among samurai films, Kihachi Okamoto's Kill! (1968), now on DVD from the Criterion Collection, is a distinct wild card. Lacking the epic sweep of Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954) or the formal beauty of Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri (1962), this tale of two vagabonds down on their luck has a scruffy appeal all its own. It's really a buddy movie played for black comedy, and punctuated by dazzling bursts of stylized violence. While it bears some comparisons to Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) with its bleak setting, tongue-in-cheek humor and lone wolf hero, it is looser and more chaotic. Think of it as a pop ballad transformed into a free-form jazz improvisation. And while it is hard at times to keep track of the constantly shifting alliances and betrayals and double-crosses that occur, keep your eyes on Genta whose wry outlook on the world is the key to the entire film.
Besides the obvious similarities to Yojimbo, Kill! will also remind you of Kurosawa's Sanjuro (1962) and is, in fact, based on the same source material - the novel Peaceful Days by Shugoro Yamamoto. Kurosawa made Sanjuro as a sequel to Yojimbo and, like its predecessor, played up the humor in the violent confrontations through the sheer absurdity of the situations. In Kill!, the violence bits come at you like hyperkinetic one-liners; we see the flash of a sword and then a severed arm skids across the ground. The editing is so sharp and staccato that our eyes barely register what we've just seen but the effect is shockingly funny. At the same time, the graveyard humor can be rendered as a deadpan joke such as the scene where Genta investigates the only restaurant in town and discovers the hanging body of the cook (business was so slow she killed herself!). Okamoto's pacing also keeps you off balance, veering from a quiet wordless sequence to one of total cacophony and animation (the riotous sing-a-long musical number at the geisha teahouse).
For all of its visual daring and an eclectic music score that is obviously inspired by spaghetti western soundtracks, Kill! would not work nearly as well without the presence of Tatsuya Nakadai and Etsushi Takahashi as the leads. Nakadai had previously appeared in Okamoto's The Sword of Doom (1966) as the near-psychotic protagonist and played similarly intense villains in the earlier films of Kurosawa so it's a revelation to see him perform in a much lighter vein. His Genta is a man of few illusions with a self-deprecating wit and a bemused manner that belies his still formidable talent with a sharp blade. Completely disillusioned with the samurai code of honor, he enjoys planting seeds of doubt in Hanjiro's mind about the value of becoming a revered swordsman. When Hanjiro announces he will triumph in the end, even if he is killed in battle, Genta can't resist pointing out the obvious - "if you die you can't really be considered successful, you know..." The comic contrast between the two not only provides a running commentary on what is really at stake in Kill! but shows us the bond these two outsiders share; Genta sees a younger, more naive version of himself in Hanjiro's ambitious country bumpkin and Hanjiro is envious of Genta's experience and natural cunning. Along the way, Etsushi Takahashi manages to steal his share of scenes by playing Hanjiro as someone with the manic energy and attention span of a young pup. One standout scene has Hanjiro, in a demonstration of strength, lifting the center support beam in a brothel to plant his sandal in the base. But after a night of non-stop, acrobatic sex, he finds himself unable to repeat the pole lifting feat to the great amusement of the brothel customers.
Recently released by the Criterion Collection in a box set entitled Rebel Samurai: Sixties Swordplay Classics, Kill! is also available separately on DVD. There are no real extras to speak of besides the original trailer and teaser. The informative liner notes by Howard Hampton bring in observations and comparisons that might totally elude a newcomer to Japanese cinema but are nonetheless intriguing to ponder: "The tone of Kill! parallels the simultaneously humorous and elegiac compositions/arrangements that Carla Bley supplied for Gary Burton's 1968 album A Genuine Ton Funeral...." You get the idea but even a novice Japanese film watcher can enjoy Kill! for what it is - a fast-paced, witty deconstruction of the samurai film and one that may hook you on the genre for good.
For more information about Kill!, visit The Criterion Collection. To order Kill!, go to TCM Shopping.
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For another well written review by Mark Pollard:
http://www.kungfucinema.com/reviews/kill_111405.htm
