The Third Shadow Warrior (1963) - Umetsugu Inoue

An uncompromising vision of the barbarism intrinsic to living in this epoch, Inoue's Jidaigeki film takes aim at the valorization of the samurai and the absolute authoritative structures which they serve to deliver a subversive deconstruction of the shogunate ethos that ultimately aligns quite well within an anarchist philosophical framework. Power and strength are the only currency of value in a militaristic world built on conquest, and Inoue's Jidaigeki film is a wicked take on the Kagemusha tale that finds great utility in its examination of symbols, images, and illusions, detailing how in a strict-hierarchical social order power itself is absolute but vacuous - everything is malleable to abject authority. Pre-dating Matsumoto's Demons by a decade, Inoue's The Third Shadow has many differences but it shows the same penchant for unsavory brutalism and abject nihilism in its portrayal of this era. I have no idea if there is any connectivity between the two films, but it just feels like it may have been instructive or influential to Matsumoto, with both films capturing how militarism and barbarism are simply put antithetical to the sanctity of life. The journey of our main protagonist is one of dual deception, the allure of power from being a samurai pulls him from his fields, and his deceptions, whether out of necessity for survival or not, lead him closer and closer to power but ultimately ruin. A grand tragedy amongst a sea of unwavering and uncompromising subjugation and brutality