Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) User Reviews

Justice...

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 6 June 2010]

In some ways, this film might be a bit anachronistic. I really am not sure it such an event might have happened--particularly with the code of Bushido putting such a premium to authority. But you sure would HOPE that it might have happened! The film begins with a small group of peasants holding the magistrate's daughter hostage. After all, his taxes are literally starving the peasants and he would seem to care nothing about their plight. So, in their minds, doing something as insanely foolish as the kidnapping seemed like only hope. It just happens that three ronin (unemployed samurai) arrive in town about that time. One agrees to work for the evil magistrate, one assists the kidnappers and one stands back...at least at the onset. Eventually, though, because of repeated lies and infamy by the magistrate, the three samurai eventually are drawn together as there is something even higher and more important that obedience--doing what is right.

There is a lot more to the story than this and it comes off like a western that has been relocated to feudal Japan. However, it is so much better than just that--with exceptional acting, action and plot. In many ways, it plays like a typical Zatoichi film merged with the Kurasawa film "The Seven Samurai". Exciting, entertaining and tough--this is one of the better sword and samurai films I've seen--and I have seen hundreds (a lot for an American).

Simple, exciting and very effective.

Entertaining samurai action

[ChungMo · 7/10 · 18 March 2006]

Excellent black and white cinematography, solid acting, well done action and a reasonably good story make this a satisfying film. The story of wandering samurai coming to the aid of impoverished farmers is not new and the characters are stock but this isn't a real problem if you are looking for something to sit back and enjoy easily. The direction is very assured and it's remarkable that this is a first directorial effort. The actors are appealing and the film never gets bogged down in long exposition or beauty shots. The comparison to a spaghetti western is apt.

The film seems like it was intended to start a series based on the three characters. Too bad that didn't happen.

Very good samurai picture, and a great-looking Blu Ray from Criterion

[zetes · 8/10 · 11 June 2012]

Hideo Gosha got his start on television. His biggest hit was Three Outlaw Samurai, and in 1964 he got the chance to direct a prequel to that series with this, his first theatrical film. Tetsuro Tanba plays a wandering samurai who comes upon a hostage situation involving three peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of the local magistrate. The peasants of the district are being treated very poorly and are starving. Tanba sees that these guys aren't bad (the girl, Miyuki Kuwano, is unharmed) and decides to help them stand up to the magistrate. Among the men the magistrate hires to dispatch of the samurai and the peasants are Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira, who will both switch sides and join up with Tanba eventually. Gosha's direction is impressive and the black and white cinematography is gorgeous. Occasionally the story is confusing and could be communicated a bit better, but for the most part it's not difficult to follow. The ending in particular is fantastic. I'd love to see some of the original series, but unfortunately it's lost.

Excellent proto-"spaghetti western" Samurai movie!

[shinobirastafari · 9/10 · 16 July 2001]

This one is Gosha's first directorial attempt, and what a debut! Though some of the performances are occasionally a bit overwrought, there are also many instances where Gosha reveals his sense of the camera.

Of course, there are Gosha's typical studied camera angles and compositions (you see some interesting "moving camera" work, which significantly predates the attempts of "pioneering" US directors). However, "Sanbiki no samurai" also showcases Gosha's ability to tell a story through facial expressions, rather than simply relying upon dialogue.

This is all film-school wankery. The bottom line is that "Sanbiki" is a gripping chambara flick, with a solid morality tale disguised as a cynical amorality tale. (Note that a common theme through many Japanese "chambara" is that of cynical ex-samurai who ultimately decides to risk life and limb for some hopeless but noble "little guy" cause.)

This theme was repeatedly, um, emulated by the likes of Sergio Leone with his spaghetti westerns. However, my point is that such tales are just plain entertaining. The three actors playing the samurai also turn in great performances.

Viewers new to Hideo Gosha may wish to start with "Goyokin" or "Hitokiri" (a/k/a "Tenchu"), but if you've seen those two already (or if they're already checked out), then this is still a definite movie to catch!

This is where it all started for one of Japan's greats.

[chaos-rampant · 8 June 2008]

Hideo Gosha's first in a series of great movies leading up to his double triumph of Hitokiri and Goyokin in 1969, is a simple but engaging chambara with a sociopolitical angle that has more in common with Kurosawa's work than the stylistic flourishes and visual grammar the director developed later in his career.

Very similar to Seven Samurai in terms of style and themes, this is another take on the familiar story of cynical samurais helping out poor peasants in their fight against the oppression of the rich and powerful. Three lowly peasants kidnap a daimyo's daughter and demand a tax reform that will ease the economic burden for all the peasants in the nearby villages. It's all well plotted and interesting for the duration with great performances all around and near superb swordplay action. Gosha's two Samurai Wolf films as well as Sword of the Beast would make ideal companion pieces as an entry point to the director's output. Fans of Kurosawa's jidaigeki work are likely to appreciate it just as well.

Four Samurai stayed home

[lastliberal · 8/10 · 15 November 2008]

Unlike the more familiar Seven Samurai, remade as The Magnificent Seven, this film only features three. Really, it is only one for most of the movie, then another joins in, and finally the third.

The story is familiar. The Samurai feel sorry for the poor peasants and one even gives up his luxurious life in the Magistrate's service to fight the evil tax collector that is bleeding the peasants dry.

It's the film debut for Hideo Gosha, and he does a great job of mixing samurai fighting and humor and concern for the poor into an enjoyable film that was beautifully shot.

I am certainly going to look for more of his work.

A relentlessly thrilling Samurai movie

[PimpinAinttEasy · 7/10 · 6 September 2015]

Three Outlaw Samurai is a relentlessly thrilling Samurai movie full of twists and betrayals.

After a title sequence with a bombastic score, the action begins almost immediately in this film. A wandering Samurai stumbles upon a hostage situation - a few pathetic peasants (not too different from the ones in Seven Samurai) are holding the daughter of an aristocrat hostage in the hope that he would waive taxes. After observing the bumbling peasants and their failed negotiations with the aristocracy for a while, the cynical Samurai decides to join the fight on the peasants side.

While watching this film, it struck me that the Samurai attitude towards life is not too different from the cowboys in spaghetti westerns or protagonists in Noir thrillers. They are very cynical and are always watching how the situation unravels. But they often put their neck on the line in the end.

The treatment and portrayal of women in this film is quite hilarious and politically incorrect.

I liked the way the director balanced the different aspects of the film - the film is a mix of cynical tongue in cheek humor and relentless action while also foregrounding themes like samurai honor and the plight of peasants.

The plot, like a Noir film is quite complicated.

(7.5/10)

kinetic, cynical, brilliantly shot, near-masterpiece debut from Gosha

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 20 March 2017]

Three Outlaw Samurai is massively successful at being a tough, no-punches-pulled story of a corrupt Magistrate (as well as samurai, whether former or not who can say, he barely acts like one) who reveals his true colors when a few peasants kidnap his daughter and hold her for ransom. At first, when we're introduced to these peasants (who barely have enough food for porridge) by way of the wandering, rogue samurai Sakon Shiba (sort of a 2nd tier Toshiro Mifune as by Tetsurô Tamba, but this is still to say he's superior likely to about a dozen other leading men from the time), it seems like the peasants may be the "bad" guys, though Shiba actually sides with them and doesn't mind - on the contrary encourages, almost out of a curious sense of 'lets see where this goes' lackadaisical attitude - for the peasants to continue. There are also two other samurai at different positions in this village, Sakura and Kikyo, who have varying personalities and attitudes to the magistrate (the latter is even more cynical than Shiba, Sakura a little more of a 'I might try to do good... maybe, at least I have more of a heart or conscience' type), and the first act deals with this hostage stand-off.

I was entertained by this first part, and felt like I was settling in reasonably well into the world of this village where it seemed like a stand-off thriller involving samurai and peasants would take place.... and then the turning point happens where the Magistrate tries to give one of the peasants a taste of his own medicine (his daughter now under capture, plus a rape is more than implied), and this sort of trade-off of the two sides goes very poorly. But when Shiba tries to do the honorable thing - roving and Yojimbo-ish as he may be, he's still got a samurai's code of right and wrong - and take the brunt of the punishment, this also goes quite badly as the Magistrate turns out to be the villain of the story.

While Three Outlaw Samurai may draw in viewers based on the promise of a lot of action and thrills and blood (albeit in black and white, which has its own electrical charge as far as seeing what effect happens, and always these fights are scored without music to heighten the tension and realism), it's actually a story of politics, both in how the Magistrate has no compunction about being corrupt but, hey, let's make sure everything's set and proper for the (superior to him) Lord's arrival in a few days, while not giving a damn about anyone or anything, least of all his samurai code. It's here that Gosha is able, on his first outing as director (man what a debut!), to get a lot of substance out of what is a slim volume of a movie at 93 minutes. This is a samurai movie made by people who love samurai movies for samurai movie fans, if that makes sense; it's hard and cold and grisly for a lot of the time, and yet the hopelessness, the feeling that any one of our main samurai could die if they're not on the total alert (the Magistrate has his hired killers like out of, to be sure, an old western with the desperadoes coming after the good gunslingers), adds another level to things.

There may be a couple of nitpicks to have with a couple of the supporting players - the women in the film, more-so Oine than Aya but kind of both - are developed only up to a point, and Aya's character arc, while there, is kind of just in the backdrop (maybe a longer running time could've given her more to do, I don't know, she's an okay actress). Some of this may be a flaw with the writing too, or like that moment near the climax when (speaking of Star Wars again) the Han Solo-ish 'I'm leaving, no, wait, I'm going back to my friends' moment happens, which isn't unexpected, but Oine's reaction is really over the top. It wouldn't be so noticeable if everything else wasn't pitched at such a degree of realistic drama; it is theatrical, practically all of the performances, but I was struck by how Gosha made the suspense so moment-to-moment and beat-to-beat so that you never question the logic of how a characters gets out of something: it's all about who can possibly get the sword out faster and do the better/smarter move.

I loved the action in this film, from how it's shot to how the actors play off of one another, and there is character to it - how Shiba fights is different than Sakura, so while they have strong technique they are distinct too in how the characters approach fighting off the other swinging-swordsmen - and I loved these actors in these main roles. At times the tone of Three Outlaw Samurai is bleak and unsettling, but that is what makes it... sorry for the lack of a better phrase, but it's bad-ass. It's simply that: it all builds up to a ferocious climax where it's unpredictable how it'll turn out - I wasn't sure who might get away from the couple of dozen swordsmen out on the three's asses - and yet the substance of the story drew me in too, how these peasants react (or don't) to Shiba and his (anti)heroic movements. There's revenge, there's loyalty, there's death-defying strokes of heroism (maybe against better judgment) and all shot in shockingly good black and white photography that always has a purpose in every movement and cut.

PS: Some of the sword-fighting is, according to director Rian Johnson, a big inspiration for the upcoming Star Wars film The Last Jedi. Whether it's the Hidden Fortress or this, it's great to see Japanese cinema in the blood of sci-fi fantasy.

vivid but disturbing

[Hunt2546 · 7/10 · 17 February 2012]

Gosha was the Don Siegel of Japan, an artist of action, a poet of mêlée. So it is with this newly restored early picture of his, now available from Criterion in blazing black and white. Typical sam fare: clunky plot, great sword work, cool flourishes (like blowing dust giving mythic quality to climactic duel, or the use of blood to punctuate kills, never overdone but extremely dramatic.) Extremely enjoyable, it turns out to be an "origins" tale in which we learn how the three outlaws (if Japanese TV fame) came together. Briefly, seems wandering ronin decides to throw in with peasant reformers who've kidnapped magistrate's daughter for leverage on tax reform, and one way or other, the two others come to his side and ultimately they face off in duels and battles with magistrate's own ronin, soldiers, various thugs and creeps. Lots of racing, slicking, sword fighting in flip-flops and bathrobes. What did somewhat shock me was the utter disregard the movie shows for women. They are used up and tossed aside like Kleenex, with no regret or mourning or much in the way of grief. At least three are murdered or commit suicide, and two more dumped. I know this is emblematic of Japanese society in early '60s, but even so, it seems a little overdone here. I don't like to judge then by the standards of now, but even if gals were objects in '64, by those standards Gosha goes a bit overboard.

Best Samurai Movie Fight Choreography

[VikingBurialService · 9/10 · 2 October 2022]

This director, Hideo Gosha, is the third best Samurai/Jidaigeki movie director (Behind Kurosawa and Kobayashi), and I think he does the best fight scenes/fight choreography of all three. Basically in this movie, a samurai takes up the cause of peasants petitioning their lord for fair treatment, and is eventually joined by two other samurai. Like Sword of the Beast (also Gosha), this movie is basically action and swordfights from start to finish, in the best way possible. There's just enough plot and character motivation thrown into this one to make the choices of the samurai seem realistic, and the camerawork, scene setting is surprisingly subtle for a movie where the fighting in the main focus. The music scoring is a little distracting at times, and I think the characters/plot are pretty standard for a samurai movie, but otherwise it's fantastic.

Equal Parts Slashing and Thinking.

[net_orders · 6/10 · 16 July 2016]

Viewed on DVD. Restoration = ten (10) stars. Director Hideo Gosha has conjured up yet another version of a samurai sub-cultural way of life in this 1964 photo play. The interactions between different food-chain classes of sword swingers and different/aberrant samurai honor codes within the same samurai class make for welcomed breaks between typical (more or less) slashing scenes. The plot revolves around three samurai who are torn between the plight of the down trodden (as usual) peasants (here the lowest of the low class from which these samurai seemed to have emerged (and would probably like to--but can not--forget) and the local rulers who pay slasher salaries. (What might make for a far more interesting script would be to explore how peasants managed to become skilled and educated samurai equal to those who have inherited samurai class standing). Acting is for the most part dynamic (and not role-based stereotypical--facial expressions are hard to forget), and directing/editing is first rate. Cinematography (wide-screen, black and white) and scene lighting are excellent. Music is a bit jarring, but otherwise OK. Subtitles seem reasonably close to the actual dialog which is a challenge to always comprehend due to the use of regional slang. Worth watching once. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

If there's such a thing as the perfect samurai film, this may be it

[InjunNose · 9/10 · 24 February 2020]

Strong performances, economy of storytelling, abundant action and even a keen sense of class consciousness...Hideo Gosha manages to get just about everything right in his first directorial effort. "Three Outlaw Samurai" stars genre stalwart Tetsuro Tamba as a wandering ronin who decides to aid a group of peasants in their struggle against a cruel magistrate; eventually he is joined by Isamu Nagato as another ronin sympathetic to the plight of the people, and Mikijiro Hira as a more ethically compromised warrior who turns his back on the magistrate at the last minute. I'm not a huge fan of Gosha but he really was on fire here, weaving a fine dramatic tale (without taking three talky, long-assed hours to get his point across) and punctuating it with a number of teeth-grindingly intense fight sequences. Especially good were Nagato's scenes with the spear: it's an unusual weapon for a chambara film, but the actor wields it masterfully under the direction of choreographer Kentaro Yuasa.

You may have encountered other examples of this genre and found them underwhelming, but don't dismiss the samurai film altogether before you've seen Hideo Gosha's debut. I guarantee that "Three Outlaw Samurai" will not disappoint.

Entertaining Samurai Pic

[lokko53 · 7/10 · 3 August 2015]

A wandering ronin stumbles upon a mill building after finding a woman's hair pin. Inside three peasants have kidnapped the magistrate's daughter in order to seek justice on behalf of all the peasants. The cynical samurai schools the peasants on how to handle a kidnapping. The humorous but portentous beginning sets up the characters and action of the film.

It is an entertaining chambara film, but there is lack of depth in terms of character study that set apart the best films. Nevertheless, it is a quality, skilled debut film by Hideo Gosha.

During some of the sequences, the camera makes a well timed dutch tilt to present the action in the film. The action and suspense in the film is well choreographed as the upper hand changes during the first act. The action is restrained and purposeful which makes the fights much more compelling.

SPOILERS

In this film we see the loyalty of two of the samurai to the peasants as a virtue despite all the hesitations on their part. Are they only defending the peasants because there are no better options for independent samurai? The third samurai works for the ruthless magistrate. He switches allegiances out of necessity when the magistrate places a price on his head.

Part of the film looks at class warfare as the magistrate hoards all the goods and the peasants starve. The film does not fall into romantic view of the struggle which is what sets it apart from other films. In the end, the peasants are too afraid to take action and risk their lives in the name of justice. They are unwilling to present their demands to the Lord of the magistrate when he visits. When people cannot take their own fate into their own hands, there is not much that can be done for them. The daughter of the magistrate develops empathy for the plight of the peasants, but also remains deeply loyal to her father in their family bond. The magistrate is the only two dimensional character. He is ruthless and ready to betray anyone in his way. In some regards, the number of betrayals by the magistrate in the film detract from the possibilities of greater character development as his own character.

I loved the dust blown by in several sequences that make the locales of combat come across as much more desolate and rugged.

Nevertheless, this is a great film for lovers of samurai films who wish to delve deeper than the typical popular films.

If Tarantino were Japanese

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 4/10 · 29 December 2021]

This movie is an origins story (or prequel, if you will) of a Japanese TV show that presumably nobody on these threads has ever seen. So let's just judge the movie on its own merits.

The story is unoriginal. The plot is convoluted. The motivations are not believable. The dialogue is trite. The acting passable.

And those are this movie's good points.

My gawd, the gratuitous violence. A woman dragged around while tied up. A man beaten with a cane 100 times. Villagers slaughtered.

There is a complete lack of long shots, suggesting to me this was filmed on a TV show budget.

So it's a bunch of cynical samurai. Oooh, edgy.

One of the best samurai films of any era!

[crushinrussian-52248 · 9/10 · 26 September 2023]

This debut from Gosha is a masterpiece. It features all the tropes of the samurai stories. It has familiar film tropes as well (think westerns, for instance.) It has humor in spades.

As the camerawork goes, you see in these movies where the John Wick films may have gotten some of their inspiration. Longer shots with minimal edits allow the audience to enjoy swordplay between multiple attackers WHILE running. Wide shots of the rural landscape as well as the scenes by the river could be taken as stills for a photography class.

I am a big fan of samurai films. There are many out there that do not feature Toshiro Mifune that are of equal or higher caliber.

This film is one of those. See it the first chance you get!

Revisionist sword-opera - excellent but grim and disenchanting

[jamesrupert2014 · 9/10 · 14 November 2021]

Wandering ronin Sakon Shiba (Tetsuro Tamba) happens across the politically motivated kidnapping of a young woman and slowly begins to side with the peasant farmers who see the abduction as the only way to get their message of despair to the local lord. He is eventually joined in his one-sided fight by fellow ronin, jovial Kyojuro Sakura (Isamu Nagato) and mercenary Einosuke Kikyo (Mikijiro Hira). Director Hideo Gosha's first film has the nihilistic feel characteristic of his early features, most notably at the end of the film, when it is unclear whether anything was accomplished by all of the preceding pain and bloodshed. The sense of 'honour' that is common in the previous decade's chanbara films is pointedly ignored as characters routinely break their most sacred pledges, money takes precedent over tradition or 'bushido', and neither side is above holding a blade to a woman's throat as a negotiating tool. The story bears some similarities to Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai' (1954) but the positive messages in the earlier film, such as when the weak finally find the strength to stand up for themselves, are absent (for the most part, in Goshas' films the weak who take on the strong end up exactly how you'd expect them to). The sword play is quite good (and fairly bloody for an early 1960s jidaigeki) although bows and arrows, which would completely scuttle the plot, are noticeably absent. The black and white cinematography is excellent and the film's sometimes desolate look perfectly matches its feel. All in all, an excellent samurai sword-opera and an auspicious debut for a fine Japanese director.

Engaging

[keshby3636 · 7/10 · 27 July 2020]

It's quickly obvious that Gosha owes a debt to Kurasawa. The storyline and actors are easy to parallel in Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, etc. but still it stands on it's own. It's cast is engaging, from the lone samurai, the guilty samurai to the rather epicurean samurai. The lead actor may be no Mifune but he's still satisfying in his role.

Outstanding movie!

[hemisphere65-1 · 9/10 · 2 December 2021]

Great storytelling! The writing and direction are fantastic, along with the performances of the main players. The action scenes were solid and the extremely pessimistic conclusion was perfect and much more believable than the majority of films in the genre.

one of my favorites classics

[abyss232002 · 30 June 2003]

after watching Gosha's other movies, my curiuosity for other samurai films made me buy this movie, first of all, I like the main character on this film the masterless samurai character, he was in Harakiri, and maybe goyokin nakadai's brother in law/ nemesis, anyway,the movie has some humor on it, has some great swordplay, I recomended this film because it is not all drama like samurai assassin and rebellion, there's alot of talking, until the last 5 minutes of the film

It is not quite Kurosawa but it is still a samurai movie

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 12 April 2023]

(1964) Three Outlaw Samurai ((In Japanese with English subtitles) HISTORICAL ACTION DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Hideo Gosha, with samrai drifter, Sakon Shiba (Tetsurô Tanba) crossing with lowly farmers and peasants who was holding the magistrate's daughter, hoping to exchange her for lowering taxes.

Spoil And when a compromise was settled, of course the magistrate does not keep his word, and punishes both the farmers and the peasants even more, by hunting the ones who were responsible for the petition. Sakon the samurai drifter is double crossed and is tortured while being tied up, until Kyôjûrô Sakura (Isamu Nagato) conspires to have him set free. Meanwhile, the other samurai, Einosuke Kikyô (Mikijirô Hira) the magistrate supposed to have employed or hired, decides to join up with Sakon's cause, along with Kyôjûrô- hence the title, "Three Outlaw Samurai".

Rivals Any Akira Kurosawa Film

[KalKenobi83 · 9/10 · 8 November 2017]

Watched Three Outlaw Samurai Starring Tetsuro Tamba(Harakiri) as Sakon Shiba, Isamu Nagato(Hissatsu) as Kyojuro Sakura, Mikijiro Hira(Gyangu Domei) as Einosuke Kikyo , Yoshiko Kayama (18 Who Cause A Storm) as Oyasu and Kyoko Aoi(Akistu Springs) as Omitsu , Kamatari Fujiwara(The Hidden Fortress) as Jinbe and Hisashi Igawa(Shiro To Kuro) as The Magistrate.

The Film was great Characterization and each had a clear motive was fantastic also The Swordplay was excellently choreographed and The Camera work was phenomenal The story was great as well Glad Rian Johnson is Using this as A Template For The Last Jedi this rivals any Akira Kurosawa film.

Fantastic Score by Toshiaki Sakai(Ninja Hunt),Cinematography By Tadashi Sakai(Blazing Sword) and Direction from Hideo Gosha Rivals Any Akira Kurosawa Film 9/10