Sleepy Eyes of Death: A Trail of Traps

1967 [JAPANESE]

Action / Drama

7
IMDb Rating 6.5/10 10 166 166

samurai jidaigeki edo period

Director

Kazuo Ikehiro Photo
Kazuo Ikehiro

Top cast

Raizô Ichikawa Photo
Raizô Ichikawa as Nemuri Kyoshiro
Kôichi Uenoyama Photo
Kôichi Uenoyama as
Tatsuo Endô Photo
Tatsuo Endô as
Nobuo Kaneko Photo
Nobuo Kaneko as Shurinosuke Asahina
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
803.82 MB
1280*534
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
30 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds ...
1.46 GB
1920*800
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
30 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by chaos-rampant

"The last person to see in this world was me. What an unlucky fellow."

The Son of the Black Mass returns in this ninth installment in Daiei's longstanding Nemuri Kyoshiro series. This time Raizo Ichikawa as Nemuri is called to see that a gold statuette of the Virgin Mary gets safe passage to Kyoto from the prying hands of a sect of murderous Christian ronin that call themselves the Black Finger Group. As is usual in this type of film, Nemuri first refuses the assignment but finally agrees to it, true to his name, in exchange for the virginity of the contractor's daughter! In the course of the film Nemuri, serving himself as a decoy while the contractor's daughter going incognito carries the statue, has to avoid the scheming, ambushes and traps set on his path by the Christian sect (a "trail of traps" as the title promises). This particular sect happens to be one of the most cheesy and funny things one will encounter in sixties chambara. They consider their pinkies religious symbols and those losing it in combat receive a hearty flagellation (!), sing prayers to Giabo the God of Hell in front of a cross (!!) and are as mean-spirited, sonofoabitchin' villains as it can possibly get. Of course all this provides a very convenient opportunity for Nemuri to indulge his anti-religious side when he confronts their leader in a final duel. Nemuri, perhaps more so than any other film in the series, hands out acerbic one-liners left and right, concluding an inconsequential subplot involving loaded dice in a gambling hall after he chops off a thieving scoundrel's arm with "you can't fight or gamble with one hand but at least you'll be able to make love to your woman", an epic line that perfectly underscores Nemuri's mentality and personal philosophy. That a dark, violent, not particularly chivalrous character who treats women like sex objects (in his own words) like him managed to get a 12-part series of his own and that such a series became immensely popular in 60's Japan, shows how many light-years ahead Japanese genre cinema was compared to its American counterpart.
Reviewed by makoto64

Raizo Rules!

If you're a fan of Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman films, (Katsu's NOT Kitano's!), and the great Lone Wolf and Cub films with Wakayama-sama then you'll love Nemuri Kyoshiro! Done in A-1 DAIEI Studio style with their ichiban, Raizo Ichikawa, this long running series rivaled Zatoichi's popularity in Japan. Now, I'd seen the first seven films and loved them, but they had English subtitles, so this was a challenge. And finally, after having bought over one hundred Japanese films for my collection/addiction I decided to try one sub-free... and it was cool! Raizo is fantastic, as always, and the swift-paced action, DAIEI's always eye-popping colors, cool sets and perfect direction made it very easy to watch even if I didn't know exactly what was being said. Following the story wasn't as hard as I'd expected. For the neophyte I suggest the subtitled versions of #1-6, "Sleepy Eyes of Death". And after you've become properly inducted/addicted to the "SON OF THE BLACK MASS" you will realize that RAIZO RULES! And soon you too will accept the daunting challenge of going totally sub-free, like me.
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