The Phantom Goblin
      
Director: Nobuo Nakagawa
Year: 1962
Rating: 7.0
Considering the title and that the director is Nobuo Nakagawa, one might expect this to be a horror or supernatural tale. Especially early on when a woman is murdered and the killers plan to throw her down a well - but that is kind of a tease and the film turns out to be an enjoyable samurai crime film. Though Nobuo is considered the Godfather of Japanese horror for a bunch of films he made in the 1950s and 60s, he directed all sorts of films. But it is his horror films that have been distributed in the West for the most part. The horror films were made for Shintoho but they went bankrupt in 1961 and Nobuo went to work with Toei which was much more conservative.  This is not a great film by a long shot - very commercial and pulpy - and feels like it was quickly made by Toei. But it moves along smoothly and ends with a big bash action set-piece that kills off as many as your basic Zatoichi finale.



It gives two roles to Hashizô Ôkawa, who was a big star at the time in jidaigeki (period) films, in particular samurai films. The first of the two characters we meet is Sir Shuma, a top policeman, who is trying to root out corruption with his assistant Seikichi (Ryûnosuke Tsukigata). Nearly everybody is corrupt from the high status to government officials to the gang of thugs. They are headed by someone called The Mastermind whose identity is kept secret. He even gets his own lair with a floor that falls out. Shuma is set up and surrounded by the gang and shot by the woman who loves him. This is Tsuya (Yoshiko Mito) who is part of the gang and has a soft spot for Shuma - and so only shoots him in the shoulder. That is love for you. He escapes and runs for it and finds refuge in an inn and crashes into a room where Asakawa Kyonosuke of the Goblin Mansion is resting. He is a Shogun's Knight. No idea what that is but it sounds pretty cool.




One look at each other and they realize they look just alike. Asakawa hides him and when the gang has left, he sends him to his mansion where he is looked after by his sister (Hiroko Sakuramachi) and his comic retainers. They spend most of their time gambling and drinking but when duty calls later on, they show their skills. Asakawa has some old grievances with the men involved in the corruption - drugs - and so takes Shuma's place as the policeman. The only way to tell them apart is their hair style. He starts roiling the pot to see what falls out. This also has the almost always high-status villain, Isao Yamagata, and the cutie pie waitress, Hitomi Junko (I think I have identified the actresses correctly, but I would not bet my apartment on it).