REVIEW: ‘The Fearless Avenger’ (1972)

Brooding chambara star Yoshio Harada returns to the role of Jokichi of Mikogami, a sword-slinging drifter driven to find and kill the men who murdered his wife and son, in this blood-soaked sequel to THE TRAIL OF BLOOD. It’s routine revenging seeking and swordplay violence set against the backdrop of the romanticized yakuza world of 19th-century Japan.

In a desperate effort to find bosses Chuji and Chogoro, the men responsible for killing his wife and child, Jokichi (Harada) foolishly charges into a meeting of gang leaders. He barely survives the encounter after he’s captured and tossed in the river. He’s recruited by one of the leading bosses to act as a bodyguard for his daughter while she’s traveling. During a run-in with thugs intent on killing Jokichi, the daughter is raped and murdered. He’s prepared to accept any punishment but instead receives a tip leading him to his targets. While searching a local bathhouse for the men, Jokichi is recruited by an area boss to fight a rival. It turns out to be a trap set in cooperation with Chuji and Chogoro but Jokichi is prepared to get his revenge.

Like Westerns and kung fu movies, the chambara genre has its small share of great movies and a much larger share of uninspired swordplay flicks churned out simply to meet demand. Like its predecessor, THE FEARLESS AVENGER is one of the latter titles. As a product of Toho, the production is sound with good sets, costumes, music, and cinematography. Swordplay action arranged by Kentaro Yuasa is plentiful, well staged and diverse. There are several small skirmishes and a couple larger battles involving several dozen men.

Kazuo Ikehiro is a competent chambara director with previous credits that include three ZATOICHI features and several of the better films in the edgy NEMURI KYOSHIRO series. Where FEARLESS AVENGER seems to be lacking is in his script which he co-wrote with Yoshihiro Ishimatsu, in turn based on a story by the late novelist Saho Sasazawa.

The character, Jokichi, is merely a walking stereotype. He’s just another Sanjuro wannabe without the quirky humor. The genre is filled with restless wanderers with near superhuman sword fighting skills and a cocky attitude dishing out justice to gambling thugs from the point of a samurai sword. His only gimmick, which was introduced in the last film, is the claws he has attached to the remaining three fingers on his left hand. They play no important role in his fighting technique, apart from occasionally delivering a few surprise scratches.

It seems as though Ikehiro is unable to find things for Jokichi to do. The film is barely 80 minutes long and a sizable portion of that has Joichi just wandering around aimlessly. The story and its characters feel just as lost and forlorn.

One bright spot is the energetic score by Takeo Watanabe, who notably went on to compose music for the LONE WOLF AND CUB TV series in 1976 and the first three incarnations of the MOBILE SUIT GUNDUM anime series in the early 1980s. He really captures the playful nature of early ’70s grindhouse and genre film. It’s dated but in a cool retro way.

There are far better chambara flicks than THE FEARLESS AVENGER but it’s not a bad little feature. Its main crime is being too clichéd and lacking a strong script. Harada, as always is a commanding presence on screen and the swordplay is good enough to want to see the production through to its predicable end. The film doesn’t end with unfinished business like TRAIL OF BLOOD did but it must have performed well enough during its initial run to warrant the release of a third feature, SLAUGHTER IN THE SNOW.