Sleepy Eyes of Death 3 - Full Circle Killing
                               
Director:  Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Year: 1964
Rating: 6.0
In this, the third film in the Sleepy Eyes of Death series Japan is undergoing changes during the Edo period of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The civil wars between feudal clans are over and peace has come to the nation. This has left the Samurai class with little to do and they have become a burden on society and very unpopular among the poorer class. There is also a rivalry among the sons of the Shogun to inherit his position and some of them are mysteriously dying. The poor have been pushed out of the main city into a slum on the outskirts and have no liking for the Samurais who they blame. One evening a Samurai shows up with a few retainers to see how sharp his sword is. By cutting off the head of one of the poor and walking away. This is witnessed by Nemuri Kyoshiro, a lean brown haired ronin of mixed parentage. Only his swordsmanship has given him respect - and many enemies.  He is usually indifferent to others, but they soften him up here as he sides with the rabble against the upper class. He basically doesn't give a fig - he does what he wants. Status and class mean nothing to him.  



The killer is actually one of the low-rent sons of the Shogun, born to a mistress. The mother is the evil one - a Lady Macbeth pushing her son to kill whoever he needs to in order to become the next Shogun. Kyoshiro is invited by an alluring female to meet with him, Sir Kitagiri . Katigiri wants the sword that Kyoshiro owns. The Muso Masamune that is very rare. Gorō Nyūdō Masamune was a famous blacksmith who lived in the 13th century and "The swords of Masamune possess a reputation for superior beauty and quality, remarkable in a period where the steel necessary for swords was often impure". A blacksmith who sharpens the sword tells Kyoshiri that his sword "emanates evil. It is as if it is in the habit of killing". True. And more to soon come.



The alluring female is Konami (Kyôko Azuma), a commoner but with a very wealthy father and is engaged to Sir Kitagiri. She will do what she needs to do to keep her status. Even kill. Kyoshiro upsets the apple cart, pisses everyone off and everyone wants him dead. Konami hires a professional assassin, her father hires one as well - Banzo the Flying Squirrel who kills with deadly slicing cards, Kitagiri with his men want him dead and the rabble try to kill him as well. At one point, one of Kitagiri's men challenges him to a sitting duel as they face each other. He politely tells the hired assassin who he admires that his style is the Full Moon Cut. "After pointing my sword to the ground, it starts a circle, before the circle is completed my opponent is dead." The big fight as usual comes at the end when Kitigiri sends his private army with spears, swords, arrows after him while they trap him on a bridge and set it on fire.



The film is very plot heavy and drags a bit at times but by the end the kill count is where it should be. It is directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda who was basically a genre filmmaker - a number of Zatoichi films, other Sleepy Eyes of Death, The Hoodlum Priest, Daimajin and Yokai Monsters among others.