Sword of Doom is a film which had a bit of a bumpy history. It was originally to be accompanied by a sequel, and maybe even turn into a trilogy, so the film is structured to have certain plot lines and characters carry on into the other films. Because of this, Sword of Doom does have a couple of loose ends that are not tied up, but it’s not really the films fault, and in any case it is still a wonderful samurai film – one of the best from the golden age of 50s and 60s Japanese cinema.
The first thing that struck me about Sword of Doom was that it certainly did have some great cinematography. I just loved the shots of our Doom carrying anti-hero and his large hat walking past piles of dead swordsmen, or the single take blitzes of violence. Even in simple, non-confrontational scenes I was thoroughly impressed with the photography. I guess what I am trying to say, is I adored the cinematography on all levels.
Hand in hand with the cinematography is the great chorography of the fight scenes, which is equally stellar. The plentiful sword fights are constructed in such a way that they are actually very tense and suspenseful. In any one of the plentiful stand offs I could feel my heart rate speed up and I would literally lean into the TV waiting for an explosion of violence to erupt. When it did, there were some surprisingly complex fight scenes, sometimes done in a single shot, and they all feel very real. I’ve seen some cheesy sword fights that aren’t believable one too many times, but in Sword of Doom, the sword clashes are very authentic and real looking. It feels like they really are trying viciously to kill and otherwise maim each other - and the sometimes graphic results only further the increasingly realistic illusion. I should also note the fights are just purely great fun to watch. They did more for me when it comes to sheer entertainment than any of the CGI crammed action scenes that cost millions of dollars could do. Tense, exciting, plentiful – Sword of Doom is an action movie, and it does not fail to deliver.
The ending was just near brilliance though. Our wandering Samurai finally goes over the edge of insanity and basically goes bezerk. In a frightening display of pure violence and hallucination and madness he goes around trying to kill people who aren’t really there, tearing up the entire building, and finally ends up in a hopeless fight against dozens of swords man. I just thought it so well displayed what evil can turn a man into and how it just eats at you until you break – a theme which recurs during the entire movie. The whole thing really is just a great way to end the movie – a great action set pieces as well as an example of decent into madness.
I love Sword of Doom. It is an excellent film to watch for top notch samurai violence, has brilliant direction and has a darkly awesome main character. It was both very enjoyable and intense. It is flawed, but still a great movie. If you are at all a fan of the samurai films from the 50s and 60s, this is one of the first movies you should investigate this movie!
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