Sleepy Eyes of Death 4 - Sword of Seduction
                              
Director:  Kazuo Ikehiro
Year: 1964
Rating: 7.0
In the mid-1500's the first Portuguese Christian missionaries arrived in Japan and had immediate success proselytizing the natives - in some cases Daimyos. But these were not entirely loving peaceful Christians as they forced Buddhists out of their temples and forced them to convert. Their power grew to such an extent that the Shogun began to be concerned that their intention was to colonize Japan for the Portuguese who were in India and Macao. In 1637 there was an uprising against a cruel overlord by locals as well as Christian peasants. The rebellion was suppressed by 125,000 troops. Following this thousands of Christians were beheaded or crucified. Christianity was forbidden and people had to either reject it or die. The religion went underground - what was termed Hidden Christians. This is where this film comes in.



Nemuri Kyoshiro the nihilistic emotionless ronin is having a cup of sake when a man approaches him and begs him to protect the Virgin Shima (Naoko Kubo), a priestess of the Christian faith with a number of followers. The Ronin says no, not my business and I think all religions are ridiculous. But he of course gets drawn in anyways. That is his fate. He follows a woman he sees and predicts she will soon die. He has a sixth sense of bad omens around people. He follows her (Shiho Fujimura) to a Christian prison where a Portuguese missionary is being held. She is the sister of the man who begged Kyoshiro and who has since been captured and sentenced to die.  The jailers tell her that if she can get the missionary to sleep with her and repent, her brother will be freed as will the missionary. In a hallucinatory filmed scene, she succeeds, and the missionary is freed - only to have Kyoshiro cut his head off because his faith was so weak.



This gets us to the character of Kyoshiro. Daiei was producing this series as well as Zatoichi at the same time. Yin and Yang. Zatoichi liked his drink and his women but had a sense of honor and fair play and constantly gets involved in the troubles of innocent women or children. Over his series it was hard not to have a growing affection for this rascally rowdy character. But he never would have ever beheaded that man and then later kill a defenseless woman as the Ronin does. Not really with Kyoshiro. He is cynical, cruel at times, misogynistic, callous, proud and unlikable. But fascinating. There are times when he comes to the aid of others with no particular motive. The filmmakers had to give him some positive characteristics to keep bringing people back. But he is not warm and fuzzy like Zatoichi.



A few threads run through this film - a Princess, the daughter (Michiko Ai) of the former Shogun has become addicted to opium and has gotten her handmaidens addicted as well. In an early scene the handmaiden are writhing in pain as their need for opium kicks in - and the Princess comes into their room and beats them and laughs maniacally - then kills them and has their bodies dumped into the river. She is a sweetie. Kyoshiro comes across - he always shows up - the sister crying because her brother is tied to a cross. The Princess sends a horde of men to rape her. Our Ronin ends up killing them all but too late for the sister. He sets the brother free. And the brother tells him that the Virgin Shima is a blood relative of his and knows of his origin story.



This perks his interest and he begins a long journey to see her. On the way everyone he comes across it seems tries to kill him. Women and men. A dog walked by and I fully expected it to try and kill him. The Princess who was exiled from Edo wants to bed him - so do the other women - have sex with him and kill him. He finally reaches the Virgin Shima and she tells him about his birth. His father was a missionary who turned to worshipping the devil - Black Mass - and raped his mother - who had him and then killed herself. Just what he didn't want to know. Shima wants him too. Damn, lucky guy.



For all the sexual content and perversions, there is actually very little so far that is shown. A clock ticking, a fountain dripping, hands clenching - but not much else. And though the body counts are high, there is practically no graphic violence - this might change as it did with the Zatoichi films. Perhaps he will become a recurring character, but Kyoshiro meets up with an old friend and rival - Chen Sun from China who is a master of the Shorinji boxing style. In the first film, they fought to a draw and do the same here. He is played by the great Tomisaburô Wakayama. Hopefully, he will be back.   I am curious to see as the series progresses whether they give him more humanity.  Or less.