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‘Sword of Doom’ is an aggressively dour and violent samurai excursion

There is an unmistakable uneasiness about Sword of Doom, director Kihachi Okamoto’s 1966 oft praised if strangely construed chambara action picture. With each passing frame its title rings truer and truer. An impending yet ill-defined doom lurks over all proceedings like an unshakable dark cloud, slowly but inexorably propelling nearly all of the characters onto a dark path, towards fates that would be best reserved for far more deserving souls. Sword of Doom’s beating black heart is the anti-hero Ryunosuke’s very existence, for all he does is out of some form of malice.

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