#Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice

[cinemajunkie70]

A very happy birthday in the afterlife to Shintaro Katsu!

[movieposters1]

[markramsey]

Watching Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice directed by Kenji Misumi from 1972 on #Max #NowWatching #FilmTwitter #FilmTumblr

[justfilms]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice

[heroesfromtheeast]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice

[bens-things]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (1972) dir. Kenji Misumi

[cultfaction]

Sonny Chiba passes away aged 82

Sonny Chiba passes away aged 82

It is Cult Faction’s sad duty to report that Hanzo the Razor himself, Sonny Chiba, has passed away at the age of 82 years old from a Covid-related illness. The sad news was broken by his agent. Chiba garnered world-wide fame for his role as Hanzo the Razor in Sword of Justice (1972), The Snare (1973), and Who’s Got the Gold? (1974).  Decades later he appeared as Hanzo the Razor’s descendent…

[videoreligion]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (1972)

[chernobog13]

Shintaro Katsu as Edo-period constable Itami Hanzo, aka Hanzo the Razor.

Katsu-san’s most famous role is Zatoichi the blind swordsman, whom he portrayed in 26 films and 100 television episodes.

Hanzo the Razor, on the other hand, is probably Katsu-san’s most Infamous role.  Hanzo is everything Zatoichi is not: sociopathic, rude, cruel, misogynistic, and determined to do whatever he has to in order to solve a case, no matter who or what he has to destroy in the process.

Hanzo was the star of a trilogy of films - Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice, Hanzo the Razor: The Snare, and Hanzo the Razor: Who’s Got the Gold? - that were released between December 1972 and February 1974.  Katsu-san produced the films through his own production company, Kastu Productions.

The trilogy was based on the mature themed manga (known as gekiga) Goyokibe by Koike Kazuo.  Katsu-san would also adapt Kazuo-san’s most famous work, Lone Wolf and Cub, as a series of six films starring his older brother, Tomisaburo Wakayama.

The Hanzo films are exploitation films, making as much use of abundant blood and nudity as they can get away with.  But their most notorious element is Hanzo’s special way of “interrogating” female criminals and suspects.  He is (how to put this delicately?) rather well endowed.  In fact, it wouldn’t be stretching things to nickname him “Tripod.”

Each film highlights Hanzo’s special training techniques to make his "special tool” more effective.  There is also at least one scene of Hanzo in action “interrogating” some female who has fallen into his clutches.  To make matters even worse, all of his female victims fall in love with him after their humiliating ordeal.

Katsu-san has played evil characters before and since (Blind Beast immediately comes to mind), but Hanzo is easily his most vile role.  That’s because he believes he’s a good guy.  Hanzo may be a rouge cop in the Edo constabulary, but he believes he’s the best because everyone else on the force - including his supervisor - is corrupt, inept, or both.  Hanzo is essentially the samurai version of Dirty Harry.  In fact, the opening theme music is all very 1970s electric guitar; if you close your eyes and listen you wouldn’t think you were watching a film set during the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Fortunately, the films are so over-the-top that they come across of parodies.  It isn’t possible to take the films seriously, which I believe was the filmmakers’ intention.

However, that’s not an excuse for Hanzo’s actions.  Despite that he thinks he’s a paragon of justice, and that the ends justify the means, at the end of the day he’s still a rapist with a very large masochistic streak in him.  

The trilogy fall into the “have to be seen to be believed” category.  However, I want anyone interested in seeing them to understand what they’re getting into.

On a slightly different note: I had read somewhere that Kazuo-san killed off Hanzo in the gekiga; he was murdered while urinating in an alley.  I do not know if this is true, as I have not been able to find much information on the original story.  That is a heck of a statement the author is making about his creation, though, if it is true.

[lucienballard]

Hanzo the Razor 1: Sword of Justice

Kenji Misumi 1972

source

[shintarok-blog1]

hanzo the razor: sword of justice (1972 dir. kenji misumi)

[dare-g]

Films I watched in January 2017

1.      Secretary (Steven Shainberg, 2002)

2.      Caligula (Tinto Brass, 1980)

3.      Memories of murder (Bong Joon-ho, 2003)

4.      Moonlight (Berry Jenkins, 2016)

5.      La La Land  (Damien Chazelle, 2016)

6.      Death Race 2050 (G. J. Echternkamp, 2017)

7.      Train to Busan (Yeon Sang-ho, 2016)

8.      Aguirre, the Wrath  of God (Werner Herzog, 1972)

9.      Boot Hill (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1969)

10.  Hair Extensions (Sion Sono, 2007)

11.  Alps (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2011)

12.  Blood at Sundown (Alberto Cardone, 1966)

13.  If you Meet Sartana Pray for Death (Gianfrano Parolini, 1968)

14.  Sartanas Here Trade your Pistol for a Coffin (Giuliano Carnimeo, 1970)

15.  Sartana the Gravedigger  (Giuliano Carnimeo, 1969)

16.  Light the Fuse Sartana is Coming (Giuliano Carnimeo, 1970)

17.  Have a Good Funeral my Friend…Sartana will Pay (Giuliano Carnimeo 1970)

18.  Sartana in the Valley of Death (Roberto Mauri, 1970)

19.  Price of Death (Lorenzo Gicca Palli, 1971)

20.  The Happiness of the Katakuris (Takashi Miike, 2001)

21.  xXx: Return of Xander Cage (D. J. Caruso, 2017)

22.  Django and Sartana (Demofilo Fidani, 1970)

23.  Django vs Sartana (Demofilo Fidani, 1970)

24.  Plague  Dogs (Martin Rosen, 1982)

25.  Silence (Martin Scorsese 2016)

26.  Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976)

27.  Machine Gun McCain (Giuliano Montaldo, 1970)

28.  Felidae (Michael Schaack, 1994)

29.  The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988)

30.  Letters to Momo (Hiroyuki Okiura 2011)

31.  Bullet Ballet (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1998)

32.  Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)

33.  The Nice Guys (Shane Black, 2016)

34.  A Place Promised in out Early Days (Makoto Shinkai, 2004)

35.  Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die! (Tonino Cervi, 1968)

36.  Julieta (Pedro Almodovar, 2016)

37.  Your Name (Makoto Shinkai, 2016)

38.  Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions (Satoshi Kuwabara, 2017)

39.  Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016)

40.  Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (Kenji Misumi, 1972)

41.  Sadako vs Kayako (Koji Shiraishi, 2016)

42.  The Isle (Kim Ki-duk, 2000)

43.  Merci Pour Le Chocolat (Claude Chabrol, 2000)

[justfilms]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice

[heroesfromtheeast]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice

[brody75]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (1972)

[videoreligion]

Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice (1972)