Cinematheque: Samurai Swordplay and Beyond

(35mm, 94min., subtitled; with Raizô Ichikawa. Directed by Kenji Misumi) This adaptation of Mishima’s famous novel tells the story of the rivalry between Kokubu (Ichikawa), a star pupil of the university kendo club and his fellow senior Kagawa. Misumi's only film in a contemporary setting is shot in suitably high-contrast black and white and is closer in style and tone to the seishun-eiga (the Japanese New Wave), than to any of the director’s own chanbara films.