REVIEW: ‘Slaughter in the Snow’ (1973)

Brooding chambara star Yoshio Harada returns for a third and final outing as Jokichi of Mikogami, a revenge-seeking swordsman with a three-fingered left hand ever on the hunt for the man responsible for the deaths of his wife and child. He reluctantly comes to the aid of “Windmill” Kobunji, a knife-tossing bounty hunter (Isao Natsuyagi) hired to kill him but preoccupied with the rescue of a high-class woman from the clutches of a local yakuza boss.

Based on a serialized novel by Saho Sasazawa, SLAUGHTER IN THE SNOW and its two predecessors, THE TRAIL OF BLOOD and its sequel THE FEARLESS AVENGER, form an increasingly clichéd and aimless swordplay trilogy that ends in a whimper despite the new addition of heavy blood spray action. By round three, Harada’s cool and detached persona has worn thin, leaving genre regular Isao Natsuyagi (SAMURAI WOLF, KARATE WARRIORS) to easily step in and overshadow him.

Natsuyagi actually shows some humanity and depth of character as a tuberculosis-suffering fighter clinging hopelessly to his love for a woman beyond his grasp. I couldn’t help but see mild parallels with the relationship between Jokichi and Kobunji versus Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday as dramatized in the movies WYATT EARP and the superior western TOMBSTONE. Both sets of warriors have reputations in their respective arenas and form an unlikely friendship. SLAUGHTER IN THE SNOW has the added tension of both men also being at odds with one another although it’s never convincing that either of them really intends to kill the other.

Jokichi really has no purpose in this film, unlike his previous ones. The whole film plays out like a TV episode, not unlike David Carradine’s KUNG FU, where the main character is mostly an observer to drama that exists between guest characters and only steps to the fore when his fighting skills are needed, either to defend himself or those he chooses to protect. It’s no wonder that this was director Kazuo Ikehiro’s last feature film before slipping into television obscurity.

The MIKOGAMI trilogy was Ikehiro’s pet project which he also co-wrote and it was exactly what the genre did not need at a time when Japan’s film industry was already a shadow of its former glory. While Shintaro Katsu was milking the lingering remains of the hugely popular ZATOICHI franchise, audiences had largely moved on to other entertainment while SLAUGHTER IN THE SNOW offered little more than a tired plot with more of the same swordplay violence ramped up by graphic arterial sprays. With long gaps of uninvolved non-action in between, there is a sense that Ikehiro was using the blood as a last gasp of desperation.

Ikehiro’s fumbled script and direction is all the more disappointing given the film’s otherwise lavish cinematography from Kozo Okazaki, a highly capable lenser who rarely shot chambara films but did previously make a good impression in Hideo Gosha’s GOYOKIN (1969). Okazaki makes the most of each scene with magnificent framing of characters that deserves to be studied by film students. There is one scene in particular that I love where Kobunji reveals his intention to kill Jokichi. The camera deftly captures each man in multiple close ups as they stand just to the side and slightly behind each other.

One crazy aspect about this period in Japanese cinema, which was dominated by exploitation movies, is that the industry had an overabundance of world-class DPs. I wish a few more of them had migrated to Hong Kong where a few, like Tadashi Nishimoto (COME DRINK WITH ME) had previously helped shape the emerging house style at Shaw Brothers.

Fight scenes are limited yet well choreographed by swordmaster Kentaro Yuasa. In addition to Jokichi’s three-fingered claw attack, the film has the added gimmick of Kobunji’s windmill wind-up where he spins a throwing knife with his right arm before releasing it. It’s a rather pitiful skill pitifully demonstrated. Honestly, who in their right mind would rely on a single throwing knife to disable or kill a skilled nihonto-wielding adversary? Miss or merely score a flesh wound and its game over. It’s a skill that is useless in several group-fighting scenarios that the character finds himself in.

By the end of SLAUGHTER IN THE SNOW, I can honestly say I was more than happy to see the film series end. It possesses none of the charm of ZATOICHI and little of the outrageousness of LONE WOLF AND CUB. This last entry in the MIKOGAMI trilogy is lacking in focus and momentum, suggesting writer-director Kazuo Ikehiro had run out of ideas. The 1960s-era BATMAN scene changes, Spaghetti Western posing, tomato-red bloodletting, and a throwaway sex scene poorly transposed with an exterior fight sequence in the snow are no substitute for a quality script directed with a sense of purpose.