is a 1965 film directed by Masahiro Shinoda

Masahiro Shinoda

is a Japanese film director, originally associated with the Shochiku Studio, who came to prominence as part of the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s.-Career:...

, based on a novel by Koji Nakada. Made during the height of the cold war

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, the film follows the lives of spies caught up in the power struggles of their times.

Story

It is set in the period between the Battle of Sekigahara

Battle of Sekigahara

The , popularly known as the , was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu...

 in 1600 and the Siege of Osaka

Siege of Osaka

The was a series of battles undertaken by the Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan, and ending in that clan's destruction. Divided into two stages , and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the shogunate's establishment...

 in 1614. It follows Sarutobi Sasuke

Sarutobi Sasuke

was a famous ninja in Japanese folklore. He is generally believed to be a Meiji period fictional creation based on the historical ninja ', although some argue for his actual existence.- In folklore :...

 (Kōji Takahashi

Koji Takahashi

is a Japanese actor. He was born in Tōkamachi, Niigata, in 1935, and attended Niigata Prefectural Tōkamachi High School and later Toyo University.-Career:...

), a spy for the Sanada Clan

Sanada Masayuki

was a Japanese Sengoku period daimyo. He was the third son of Sanada Yukitaka, a vassal daimyo to the Takeda family in Shinano province. He is known as a master strategist. Sanada Nobuyuki and Sanada Yukimura were his sons.-Biography:...

. Sasuke is caught between two rival groups of spies, those working for the Tokugawa Shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

 and those supporting the Toyotomi Clan

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

. Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

 was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara  in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...

's clan was in the strategically superior position after having won the Battle of Sekigahara but had engendered much hatred among samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 who had become ronin

Ronin

A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....

 after the Battle.

The Tokugawa spies are led by Sakon Takatani (Tetsuro Tanba) and Tatewaki Koriyama (Eiji Okada

Eiji Okada

Eiji Okada was a Japanese film actor. Okada served in the Japanese army during World War II, and was a miner and traveling salesman before becoming an actor....

) and the Toyotomi by Shigeyuki Koremura (Eitaro Ozawa) and his lieutenant Takanosuke Nojiri (Kei Sato). The story begins when Sasuke is approached by another Toyotomi spy Mitsuaki Inamura (Mutsuhiro Toura), who tells Sasuke that Tatewaki means to betray Tokugawa and join the Toyotomi. Sasuke, believing that this intrigue will start another war, tells Mitsuaki that he wants no part in it, but he begs Sasuke to help him since the cruel local magistrate Genba Kuni (Minoru Hodaka) is on the lookout for him.

External links

• Samurai Spy - Vintage Ninja
• Samurai Spy (1965) - gotterdammerung.org
• Wild Realm Reviews: Samurai Spy
• Samurai Spy: The Thin Line Between Truth and Lies, The Criterion Collection
  The Criterion Collection
  The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...