Goyokin (1969) [Film Review]

Goyokin; or, Gold for Official Use

      We made a promise three years ago. But I broke that promise. Magobei, I will break that promise over and over as many times... as I have to. In order to keep the world running, we samurai must dirty our hands with blood.

When thinking about samurai movies, people immediately think about Kurosawa’s immortal Yojimbo (1961) or Kobayashi’s all-time classic Harakiri (1962). While these films are the hallmarks of excellence, they do not constitute the whole of this genre. Similarly to other cinematic trends, samurai films were also made by lesser known filmmakers– not omnipotent geniuses but craftsmen, hardworking and efficient, like Hideo Gosha. Though his productions were domestically successful, the global audience was not really aware of their existence until after the director’s death. One of such modernly rediscovered gems made by Gosha is Goyokin from 1969. An action-adventure flick with the great Tatsuya Nakadai in the lead, which involves revenge, sword-fights, slaughter, and shogun’s gold.

Release Info

Directed by: Hideo Gosha Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tetsuro Tamba, Ruriko Asaoka

Language: Japanese Original Title: 御用金 Runtime: 124 min

Synopsis

It’s the year 1833, the heyday of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Magobei Wakizaka (Tatsuya Nakadai) is a ronin living in Edo. Three years ago, he left the Sabai Clan when its chamberlain, Rokuko Tatewaki (Tetsuro Tamba) used the crash of shogun’s ship to his advantage and stole the state gold. In order to cover it up, he massacred the fishermen from the nearby village who recovered the gold. Now, the ruthless chamberlain wants to save the finances of his clan by staging another ship accident and massacre of innocent people. Magobei gets to know about the devious plan of his brother-in-law and he rushes from Edo to stop him. Along the way, he is joined by the sole survivor of the original slaughter Oriha (Ruriko Asaoka), her brother Rokuzo (Ben Hiura), and a shogun’s spy, Samon Fujimaki (Kinnosuke Nakamura).

 

Samurai’s Funeral

Goyokin (along with Tenchu!) is frequently called the best samurai film from Gosha and I find it hard to disagree. This might not be a black-and-white, ironic examination of humanity (hint: Kurosawa), yet the story is rich enough and professionally executed to be considered a legit period piece. Nevertheless, the film’s main advantage is action. Toshiro Mifune may be the cinematic master swordsman, but Gosha’s quick cuts, zooms, and angle shots render Nakadai’s fighting in this movie unforgettable. It’s been a few years since my first viewing of the film and yet I still vividly remember Magobei’s slashing of the bad guys in pitch darkness.

 

Apart from the entertaining value, there’s also Gosha’s historical commentary. As much as Kurosawa desired to change the course of Japanese history with Yojimbo, Gosha resents and criticises the samurai code of honour. Magobei is a fallen hero who was unable to object to his brother-in-law as he committed the slaughter. Magobei’s quest to stop the chamberlain is a journey of self-redemption, of defying the rotten code of silent obedience when bad things happen. The samurai finally has to do the right thing in order to redeem himself.

 

In addition, I especially love the tiny historical notches provided by Gosha. The story of the samurai clan being desperate enough so as to steal the shogun’s gold makes perfect sense since those are the Tokugawa times, a period of peace and stagnation when samurai were no longer needed as warriors, hence their status almost degraded to that of farmers. Also, we have a scoundrel-like heroine, Oriha, who is not afraid of dealing with the yakuza (Gosha’s exploitation of the yakuza theme here), and she is determined to know what happened to her fellow villagers. What is more, Shino (Yoko Tsukasa), Magobei’s wife, is torn between being loyal to her husband and to her brother, which distorts the image of a proper samurai wife.

 

Nevertheless, a great spirit of adventure is the driving force of Goyokin as we see Magobei and his merry band of avengers (Samon, Oriha, and Rokuzo) kick a lot of sorry samurai butts in the film's fiery finale. Also, Nakadai’s duel with dauntless Tetsuro Tamba amidst the snowy plains of Northern Japan is a definite must-see.

 

In terms of performances, Tatsuya Nakadai as always does splendidly in a role which does not require his character getting killed off by Toshiro Mifune. A word of trivia here: Mifune was actually slated to play in Goyokin as Samon, but he argued with Gosha about the necessity of shooting the picture in the cold parts of Niigata Prefecture and eventually dropped out (shame! yet, Kinnosuke Nakamura provides a decent replacement). Tetsuro Tamba is classic as a commanding samurai leader, having already marked his place in chambara films with Harakiri (1962) and Three Outlaw Samurai (1964). Yoko Tsukasa makes another gracious appearance, yet her role is quite limited. Ruriko Asaoka does magnificently well as Oriha, though pretending to play an 18-year-old when she was actually 28.

 

Recommendations

Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in Hideo Gosha’s work. Goyokin is a wonderfully entertaining instance of a samurai film. It has all of the necessary ingredients: Nakadai, great story, sword fights, and the tranquilizing score by Masaru Sato. Basically, this film is an obvious highlight of the 1960s, the golden period of samurai movies. If you’re into chambara, give it a go anywhere, anytime.

Overall score: 10/10