The Dagger of Kamui

Rintaro

Overview

"In mid-1800s Japan, a young boy named Jiro comes home to a horrible sight: His adoptive mother and sister, murdered. Found kneeling over the bodies and holding the murder weapon -- the dagger his parents left with him as a baby -- the villagers accuse him of murder and chase him out of the village. Jiro is rescued by Bishop Tenkai, the head monk of the Tengen temple of the Ezo (now Hokkaido) region. Under Tenkai's guidance, Jiro undergoes rigorous ninja training -- until he discovers that Tenkai was behind his mother and sister's murder, and manipulated him into killing his biological father. Fleeing Tenkai's temple and pursued by a cadre of ninjas equally deadly and bizarre, Jiro discovers that Tenkai charged his father with finding the lost treasure of Captain Kidd. Tenkai plans to use the money to help bolster the shogun's control over Japan and cut off its nascent contact with the outside world, but all he knows is that the key to finding the treasure is somehow linked to Jiro's dagger. As Jiro embarks on a journey that takes him to Russia and the western United States before returning him to Japan, he finds himself becoming further enmeshed in Tenkai's web -- as events push him close to the treasure, Tenkai and his people are never far behind. (American release in 1993.)"

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2003
UPC:	0737187004483
Original Release:	1985
Rating:	13Up
Source:	Animeigo
Region Code:	1
Language:	English
Time:	2:12:00
Sales rank:	38,199

Special Features

Character bios; On-screen maps; Original trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Technical Credits

Rintaro

Director

Editorial Reviews

Based on a series of novels by Tetsu Yano, Dagger of Kamui avoids the usual clichés of honor, mysterious societies, and mystic oaths and instead relates a story of politics, double-crossings, and revenge. With the shudderings of the Meiji restoration as a backdrop, director Taro Rin draws us into a complex conspiracy masterminded by the Buddhist monk Tenkai and focuses on the young Jiro, twice orphaned and lusting for revenge. Rin's stylized visuals work well in a world where people can kill at the speed of thought and count hallucinogens and hypnotic tricks as weapons in their arsenal. Time speeds up and slows down; blood floats out of bodies, glowing a bright red; bodies twist and flow like water as a mesmerized Jiro fights a bizarre trio of assassins. At times the story sags under its own weight, dragging along as we are introduced to even more allies during Jiro's travels, coincidences springing up like weeds. Ultimately, the storytelling is more important than the story itself; easily evoking the feeling of myth, Dagger of Kamui is an inventive tale told by an equally inventive director.