In which I take up the sword

I moved to Seattle, just out of my teens, at a time when the teevee miniseries Shogun had sparked samurai fever across the country. The late Broadway Theatre had a month-long series of samurai double-bills, and I had nothing but time. Just beginning to dive into film (still suspicious of 30s musicals, documentaries and anything smacking of art), I saw everything they offered, including Double Suicide which I'd first seen as a kiddo with "scene deleted" cards inserted over the sex scenes on PBS (the moaning continuing underneath).
26 years later, it is Summer of Samurai at the Northwest Film Forum. I think I'm going to see everything they show this time as well, although I've seen about half the offerings multiple times. Saw Samurai Rebellion on Sunday, a great film about saying no to the powerful--back in 1980, I was a little frustrated that it took 90 minutes for the action to start; now the pace seems exactly right. Three Outlaw Samurai last night: That was a new one for me. Plenty action-packed, and Tetsuro Tamba is always cool because you can tell from the way he changes his grip on the sword when the killing stroke will be. And Throne of Blood, for the 4th time, but the first time since the mid 80's. I saw it then with The Polish Intellectual, who started groaning and sighing about the time Lady Asaji disappears into the blackness and then returns from the blackness with the pot of drugged saki. "It's so obvious," he said later. "It is a dunderheaded picture," he said. Could he be right? I thought. He's so much smarter than I that he must be. Years later, older, no wiser, the movie still seems brilliant to me. I'm thinking that ol' Stefan was just acting out of loyalty to his countrymen Wajda and Polanski. Although the theatrical conventions used here had undoubtedly been around for years, even centuries, it seems to my uneducated eyes that many of the archetypes of J-horror started here: the spooky impassiveness of Lady Asaji; the room with the bloodstains that can't be removed, causing odd shadows on the wall; the figure suddenly present in the foreground; use of unnatural movement; the whimpering sound Lady Asaji's kimono makes as the silk rubs together.
...Jim Emerson recently had a great article about opening shots of movies. I've long been meaning to keep a journal of closing shots. I suspect they mostly fall into maybe a dozen categories. I guess I'll start now:
Samurai Rebellion and Three Outlaw Samurai: protagonist moving away from camera, going down the road, viewed from above.
Throne of Blood: repetition of opening shot.