It's good, not great.
Visually this film is very strong. The framing and composition of mostly every shot is pleasing to the eye and elevates the scene it captures. The choreography of the action is generally pretty great, though there are a few moments where I had to wonder why it was that everyone with a sword felt obligated to attack one at a time no matter what. This is an issue with a lot films in the action genre, but it seems that every chanbara film I've ever seen, which is a fair amount, has this problem. Maybe there's something about group sword fighting I'm not aware of. Who knows. The issues with the choreography are few and far between though and overall this film is an absolute joy to look at.
The presentation becomes a bit more questionable when it comes to the sound of the film. The noises that the swords make when they clash into one another during some, or most, of the fighting is a bit exaggerated to the point of being a touch goofy. I don't I was personally bothered by it that much and I even found enjoyment in how over the top it was, but I could see people becoming very irritated with the sounds of the sword strikes. The soundtrack itself is also potentially hazardous. Rather than create a score which evokes the early eighteenth century setting, the soundtrack feels like it was created for a cops and robbers thriller. I get the impression that is intentional. The film is meant to be a sort of gangster flick set in feudal Japan, juxtaposing the modern story elements with a period setting. That's all well and good, but it might have been better to go with a score that fit the setting rather than a modern sound which was doomed to date the film in a way the samurai swordplay never could.
The story itself is good generally. It does run into the potential issue of a gang of vaguely defined characters who all sort of dress and act the same with a few exceptions. Besides the core group of main characters I sometimes had a difficult time keeping track of who was who and what they were after. That being said, Tatsuya Nakadai brings a lot to the table and the film is well acted despite some weakness in the character writing. The story gets a little muddled around the third act when the motivations of certain characters become a bit more difficult to decipher, but the action keeps the stakes clear on a more scene by scene basis.
If you like the genre then there's a good chance you'll like the film. If, like myself, you're a big fan of Tatsuya Nakadai then I would definitely recommend it. So far as Gosha is concerned, this is the first film I've seen from him but it makes me curious about his other work. Finally, and I probably don't need to say this at this point, it's a bit long, and it's debatable whether or not it really has to be. Still good though.
