Three outlaw samurai (V.O. Sanbiki no samurai)

Japan, 1964

Director: Hideo Gosha

Screenplay: Keiichi Abe, Eizaburo Shiba, Hideo Gosha

Cast: Tetsuro Tamba, Isamu Nagato, Mikijirō Hira, Yoshiko Kayama

Genre: Chambara

Plot

The wandering ronin Shiba (Tetsuro Tanba) arrives at an old mill (attracted by a hair clip he finds nearby, which must belong to some noble lady). Once there, he finds that three peasants are holding a girl. She has been kidnapped because she is the daughter of the provincial administrator, Uzaemon Matsushita, who tyrannizes the villagers and makes them pay exorbitant taxes. The three peasants demand an improvement in their living conditions in exchange for the release of young Aya.

Meanwhile, the authorities have discovered who organized the abduction, and in his palace, Matsushita gives the order to attack the mill to rescue the daughter.

Shiba, on the other hand, after learning the reason for the kidnapping, decides to side with the peasants and fights with them against the tyrannical administrator’s men. They are defeated thanks to the skilled ronin.

Later, Matsushita sends elite men to subdue Shiba, men recruited from among samurai such as Kikyo and Sakura (the latter an imprisoned ronin). When they arrive at the mill, Shiba goes out to meet the new antagonists, and after defeating some of them in combat, Sakura decides to join the peasants upon learning of their noble cause. Sakura also brings with her supplies, which were already beginning to be scarce for the villagers. What they ignore is that these foods were stolen from a farmer of the place, known by all there (which was killed by Sakura).

Kikyo instead returns to the palace of Matsushita, because she prefers to live among comforts and has there her mistress, the cruel Omaki. She keeps the daughter of Jinbei, one of the three rebellious peasants.

Shortly after, a detachment appears again in front of the refuge of the rebels, this time led by Matsushita himself. They take Jinbei’s daughter prisoner, and mistreat her in front of her father’s eyes; threatening to kill her if they do not free Aya.

After the whipping, the treacherous Matsushita does not let him go but locks him in the dungeon, and orders the peasants to be liquidated. When Sakura discovers the trap, he sets out to rescue his friend. The widow of the peasant he killed, Omoe, tries to stop him, because she sees in him a protector and is in love with him (without knowing that it was precisely Sakura who was responsible for the death of her husband). Aya’s three kidnappers are killed by the administrator’s men, while Shiba languishes in the dungeons. The brave and self-sacrificing ronin learns of the betrayal from Kikyo, one of Matsushita’s most fearsome men.

Sakura arrives at the palace, informs a courtesan about Shiba’s arrest and the death of the peasants, and the woman (for whom Jinbei had been like a father), frees the imprisoned ronin by giving him the key, but dies in the struggle with the dungeon guard. The latter has sounded the alarm bells before expiring, but the next henchman is killed by Kikyo, who decides to help Shiba by allowing him to escape. Aya, who sees the badly wounded samurai trying to escape, helps him out of the palace (as she is attracted to him, and considers that she saved his life: “If I could, I would go with you”).

Before he breathes his last, the watchman whom Kikyo wronged can still reveal his name as “her murderer”; whereupon the administrator orders him to be liquidated for treason, in addition to the other two samurai, who have the document signed by him stating that “the peasants would be pardoned in exchange for the whipping of Shiba” (an unfulfilled pact). This document, which was carried by one of the three peasants shortly before he was gruesomely executed, was thrown into the river and carried away by the current until it was found by the two ronin.

Kikyo manages to escape her executioners, but her lover Omaki is not so lucky, and perishes under the swords. Thus, Kikyo finally decides to join Shiba and Sakura, becoming the third “outlaw” samurai. Meanwhile, Sakura discovers that Matsushita’s men are holding Omoe, and to gain her release he is forced to confess that the document is with his friends at the mill. After managing to save Omoe’s life, but embarrassed to reveal the whereabouts of the document, Sakura leaves for the mill to help his comrades in the fight against the administrator’s troops.

Shiba seeks to deliver the document to the peasants, urging them to take it to the highest shogunal authorities to prove Matsushita’s treacherous and dishonest behavior. The peasants, however, turn out to be resigned pushovers, cowardly worms, who prefer to eke out an oppressed and crawling existence and who therefore (as the bewildered ronin must finally ascertain) do not deserve to be helped.

Shiba and Kikyo then confront Matsushita’s men, Sakura arrives and between the three of them they manage to defeat the enemy. After the victory, Shiba goes to the administrative palace to settle accounts with the tyrant and disloyal Matsushita. But his daughter Aya intervenes, interposing herself between Shiba and his father. The ronin then decides to spare the despot’s life, but in a kata he cuts off his bow tie, which symbolically represents his defeat and humiliation.

Shiba then returns to where his comrades are waiting for him and (after throwing Aya’s hair clip, which the ronin kept, to show them a direction to follow) the three of them set off for new lands.

Commentary

Excellent chambara by master Hideo Gosha, tells the story of the brave and honorable samurai Shiba (played by a magnificent Tetsuro Tanba) and how he joined the cause of some oppressed peasants who (after the elimination of their three leaders) turned out to be cowardly sheep who did not deserve a great man to sacrifice himself for them.

The theme of the film thus invites reflection, to consider that the masses are often incapable of fighting for their freedom without the right guides, without someone to channel and amalgamate popular sentiment; and that quality is always more important than quantity – see as an illustrative example the swordsmanship demonstrated by the three ronin against the (much more numerous) troops of the tyrant Matsushita. The film also vindicates camaraderie and honor, as well as the importance of respecting one’s word.

As for the women, it highlights the internal conflicts existing in the two main female characters: Aya, the despot’s daughter, in love with the outlaw; she is torn between loyalty to her father and her attraction to the ronin, preventing both the death of one and the other. Omoe, in love with Sakura, is at first determined to avenge her husband’s death, but when Sakura confesses to her that he is the murderer, it does not change her feelings.

A masterpiece of samurai cinema, a must-see for fans of the genre.