Review of The Sword of Doom (1966) by Walter M — 20 Dec 2005

[font=Century Gothic]"Sword of Doom" starts in 1860 as an old man and his grandaughter climb a mountain pass on a pilgrimage. While she goes to get water, he prays to not be a burden to her. Unlucky for him, his prayers are answered when he is killed by Ryunosuke(Tatsuya Nakadai) who is a superbly skilled swordsman lacking in the ethics department. The following day he has a match against Bunnujo(Ichiro Nakaya). If Bunnujo loses the match, he forfeits his training school which is his livelihood. For this reason, Ryunosuke's father dearly wants his son to lose the match but he does not budge until Bunnujo's wife, Ohama(Michiyo Aratama), shows up and throws herself at him. On the day of the match, Bunnujo finds out about their meeting, thus making a tense situation worse than it already is...[/font].

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[font=Century Gothic]"Sword of Doom" is a very artfully directed and photographed movie. The fight scenes, especially the climax are very exciting. The main theme of the movie is that it takes more than great talent to be a great person. Humiltiy and compassion help a great deal. [/font].

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[font=Century Gothic]But after the initial part, the film starts to jump around a lot instead of just focusing on Ryunosuke. Some important plot threads are left unresolved. I might have liked "Sword of Doom" had I a little more knowledge of Japanese history.[/font].