Masahiro Shinoda’s SAMURAI SPY is a genre film with many unexpected twists and turns
NYFF MASTERWORKS: SAMURAI SPY (IBUN SARUTOBI SASUKE) (Masahiro Shinoda, 1965)
New York Film Festival
Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday, October 5, 9:00, and Wednesday, October 6, 4:00
Series runs September 25 – October 10
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
It’s fourteen years after the Battle of Sekigahara, and the Tokugawa is still battling the Toyotomi as spies cross the land, leaving paths of blood in their wake. Caught in the middle is Sartobi Sasuke (Koji Takahashi) of the Sanada clan, who is after the truth. This is not your average samurai flick — there’s a little sex, nudity, Christianity, dismemberment, and even leprosy, although the plot is plenty confusing; good luck trying to figure out who is on which side, but always keep a look out for those men in the mysterious masks, as well as Sakon (Tetsuro Tamba), the dude in the silly white costume. The minimalist, noirish score by Toru Takemitsu is right on. SAMURAI SPY is part of the NYFF Masterworks section of the forty-eighth New York Film Festival, in the series “Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda,” which honors the genre-bending Japanese New Wave auteur with screenings of such works as THE ASSASSIN, KILLERS ON PARADE, MOONLIGHT SERENADE, and PALE FLOWER.