AnimEigo’s ‘Trail of Blood’ by Kazuo Ikehiro, R1 USA DVD October 3rd 2006.

Reader Comments

1. jokichi 07/18/2006 @ 1:58pm

   trail of blood! saw the first one on a “samurai cinema” vhs tape about seven years ago, and it instantly became my favorite samurai film (and ikehiro my favorite samurai film director. “zatoichi and the chest of gold” and “zatoichi’s flashing sword” are definitely at the top of my list of zatoichi films. his samurai films are the first ones i saw in which the camera was removed from the tripod or dolly. a good thing to do, now and then, in an action film—even if it is japanese). been waiting since then to see the next two (the first one sorta leaves you hanging; not like the “satan’s sword” films do, but…).

   i don’t recall bunta sugawara being in the film, but i only really knew him by name back then. the title character is played by the great yoshio harada (“hunter in the dark”, “onibi”, “azumi”) and atsuo nakamura (who played the title character in the tv series"kogarashi monjiro” and has been immortalised as that character with a supercool alfrex 1/6 figure. he revisited that character with a 1993 film “Kaettekite Kogarashi Monjiro”; directed by no less than kon ichikawa. i’d still like to see anything with that character subtitled. he also appears, briefly, in “owl’s castle”).

   october 3rd! it’s good to know how long i have to hold my breath (although that didn’t help davey b., did it?).

2. jokichi 07/18/2006 @ 1:59pm

   trail of blood! saw the first one on a “samurai cinema” vhs tape about seven years ago, and it instantly became my favorite samurai film (and ikehiro my favorite samurai film director. “zatoichi and the chest of gold” and “zatoichi’s flashing sword” are definitely at the top of my list of zatoichi films. his samurai films are the first ones i saw in which the camera was removed from the tripod or dolly. a good thing to do, now and then, in an action film—even if it is japanese). been waiting since then to see the next two (the first one sorta leaves you hanging; not like the “satan’s sword” films do, but…).

   i don’t recall bunta sugawara being in the film, but i only really knew him by name back then. the title character is played by the great yoshio harada (“hunter in the dark”, “onibi”, “azumi”) and atsuo nakamura (who played the title character in the tv series"kogarashi monjiro” and has been immortalised as that character with a supercool alfrex 1/6 figure. he revisited that character with a 1993 film “Kaettekite Kogarashi Monjiro”; directed by no less than kon ichikawa. i’d still like to see anything with that character subtitled. he also appears, briefly, in “owl’s castle”).

   october 3rd! it’s good to know how long i have to hold my breath (although that didn’t help davey b., did it?).

3. jokichi 07/18/2006 @ 2:03pm

   trail of blood! saw the first one on a “samurai cinema” vhs tape about seven years ago, and it instantly became my favorite samurai film (and ikehiro my favorite samurai film director. “zatoichi and the chest of gold” and “zatoichi’s flashing sword” are definitely at the top of my list of zatoichi films. his samurai films are the first ones i saw in which the camera was removed from the tripod or dolly. a good thing to do, now and then, in an action film—even if it is japanese). been waiting since then to see the next two (the first one sorta leaves you hanging; not like the “satan’s sword” films do, but…).

   i don’t recall bunta sugawara being in the film, but i only really knew him by name back then. the title character is played by the great yoshio harada (“hunter in the dark”, “onibi”, “azumi”) and atsuo nakamura (who played the title character in the tv series"kogarashi monjiro” and has been immortalised as that character with a supercool alfrex 1/6 figure. he revisited that character with a 1993 film “Kaettekite Kogarashi Monjiro”; directed by no less than kon ichikawa. i’d still like to see anything with monjiro subtitled. he also appears, briefly, in “owl’s castle”).

   october 3rd! it’s good to know how long i have to hold my breath (although that didn’t help davey b., did it?).

4. jokichi 07/18/2006 @ 2:05pm

   uh…pardon the triple-post. rookie mistake.

5. jokichi 07/18/2006 @ 2:12pm

   oh, and atsuo nakamura is “also featured”. he doesn’t share the title character role with yoshio harada as i implied above. darn me and my long, sidetracking parenthetical statements.

   atsuo’s the one with the eyepatch on the poster.

6. arch stanton 07/18/2006 @ 3:17pm

   Thanks for the heads-up about these. I’ve got several of the LONE WOLF dvds and LADY SNOWBLOOD but had never heard of this series before.

7. john 09/16/2006 @ 5:42pm

   anyone want to trade samurai dvd movies?
   ——-

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