This movie is intricately directed down to the sigh of a breath from the character which can be easily labelled as "evil" and "insane" (which so you know occurs at the referee's announcement of "DRAW" at the end of the Mt. Mitake duel). Was Ryunosuke evil to begin with? Or was he born without a conscience? And did the characters around him play any role in his misery? Compare the antihero to other characters such as the man who sold Omatsu (a girl) to a brothel. His actions spring from impulse and what seems to me to be boredom. In any case this movie should not be labelled as just an action flick because I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I'm not crazy about sword films. Don't be fooled by careless reviewers, the ending made perfect sense because the film is not a story of revenge, romance or insanity its much more and it resists any attempt for us to label it. If Ryunosuke was killed in the duel with Homa (unlikely) then you can say the movie was about revenge. If Ryunosuke was killed by the fencing teacher (played by Mifune) you can say the movie is about good vs. evil...and so on but it doesn't end that way. Sword of Doom aka The Great Buddha Pass (a more appropriate name) is a masterpiece.
Review of The Sword of Doom
