Samurai Assassin
Samurai Assassin is a 1965 Japanese film directed by Kihachi Okamoto and starring Toshiro Mifune, Koshiro Matsumoto, Yūnosuke Itō, and Michiyo Aratama. It is set in 1860, immediately before the Meiji Restoration changed Japanese society forever by doing away with the castes in society and reducing the position of the samurai class.
Plot summary
The film tells the story of Niiro Tsurichiyo as the illegitimate son of a powerful nobleman, and the way of his life that made him a swordfighter but also a social outcast. He joins forces with the multiple clans against the Lord of Hikone, Sir Ii Kamonnokami Naosuke. Ii is the right hand of the shogunate and brought upon himself the wrath of the Satsuma, Mito, and Choshuu provinces after making an unpopular choice for the appointment of the 14th shogunate. Many critics arose after the controversial appointment, and Ii initiated the Ansei Purge to quiet critics of his choices. This, in turn, led to an assassination plot hatched by the three provinces in order to remove Ii from his position of power. The shoguns also weeded out Ii's spies from the plot. The film is based on a novel, which in turn was inspired by the historical Sakuradamon incident, in which the feudal lord Ii Naosuke was assassinated outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle in March 1860.Cast
- Toshiro Mifune - Tsuruchiyo Niiro
- Keiju Kobayashi - Einosuke Kurihara
- Michiyo Aratama - Okiku / Kikuhime
- Yūnosuke Itō - Kenmotsu Hoshino
- Eijirō Tōno - Masagoro Kisoya
- Tatsuyoshi Ehara - Ichigoro Hayama
- Tadao Nakamaru - Shigezo Inada
- Kaoru Yachigusa - Mitsu
- Haruko Sugimura - Tsuru
- Nami Tamura - Yae
- Shiro Otsuji - Kaname Kojima
- Toshio Kurosawa - Itamura Katsunoshin
- Yoshio Inaba - Keijiro Sumita
- Akihiko Hirata - Sohei Masui
- Hideyo Amamoto - Matazaburo Hagiwara
- Takashi Shimura - Narihisa Ichijō
- Matsumoto Kōshirō VIII - Ii Naosuke