Friday Night Weird: Samurai Wolf

TICKETS

Isao Natsuyagi stars as Kiba, a charismatic ronin who wanders into a small town and ends up ensnared in a local conflict that’s more than meets the eye. After dispatching a pair of highway criminals seen robbing a courier wagon, Kiba agrees to assist a beautiful blind woman who runs the local shipping company. Double- and triple-crosses ensue, illustrated with savage but economical violence courtesy of famed director Hideo Gosha’s striking black-and-white filmmaking. The result is a lean and mean triumph of samurai cinema, cementing Gosha’s status as a master of the genre. (Hideo Gosha, 1966, Japan, 1:15, NR)