In which I dance in blood

To the NWFF to see Sword of Doom with The Engineer. I tried to talk her our of it, as she doesn't usually enjoy jets of blood, but she was determined. (Turns out she was actually wanting to see Throne of Blood--the titles compose a visual rhyme.) I mentioned last week that I'd moved to Seattle at the beginning of a samurai series: the first film I saw in that series was Sword of Doom. Are they all going to be like this? I wondered. Turns out, no. There's nothing like Sword of Doom anyplace. Tatsuya Nakadai has this Thousand Mile Stare throughout--he only comes alive when killing. It's those moments when the mask breaks, for just a split second, that you realize how brilliant his performance is--a moment of anguish, something almost approaching tenderness as he looks at his (maybe) son, or, more often, mirthless laughter after surviving another battle. "You want to kill everyone in the world", his mistress says. "Not everyone," he answers....I saw this a second time with my Dead Friend, who was similarly startled. The abrupt ending left him grasping at the screen. There's no need to show what happens next; there's possibly nothing happening at all; maybe it's some sort of eternal realm, like Izo...The Engineer was actually pretty impressed with its refusal to tie up the story--the let-down that many (most) action movies have in the last reel. No dancing, although I think any martial arts movie can be said to have dance sequences of a sort.
Final shot: freeze frame, mid-action
Also saw, by myself, Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron , the most recent film in this series. Definitely operating by Roger Corman rules: if you have blood and tits in the first 15 minutes, you'll have the audience for the rest of the movie. Of course Corman was talking about an 80 minute movie, and this runs three hours! Not all the audience stayed, either, as there was a convenient projection accident that allowed folks to assess whether it was worth staying up until after midnight. I answered in the affirmative. Huge cast of characters, all with their own agenda. Great identity swap between two brothers. Although the score was mostly standard, often sentimental, occasionally it would break into some startling Sonic Youth-style feedback bursts--at first I thought it was a sound effect from something happening offscreen, as it was so different from the rest of the score, but it soon became clear that it was meant to heighten the darkest revelations of the characters. Very effective. Also, the damned-soul wailing of the battle cries coupled with the sudden release of blood in focused streams: I'd buy the album. You could dance to it. Also featuring burlesque dancing.
Final shot: two protagonists, going down the road, opposite directions, shot from above.