Oni no Tsume - The Hidden Blade

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As mentioned at training yesterday, SBS on Demand has this movie available for streaming until 11 June. It is part of a trilogy of samurai films by the director Yoji Yamamoto: Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai; 2002), Oni no Tsume (The Hidden Blade, 2004), and Bushi no Ichibun (Love and Honour, 2006).

The films are all linked by their themes of life as a middle-to-low ranking samurai in late-Edo period Japan. The locations and costumes are all immaculately put together to give a very realistic look into what life would have been like. Even language and customs are accurately portrayed: think of them as similar to a BBC period adaptation of Jane Austen.

And the swordsmanship is not terrible.

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