The Crimson Bat
Though following a number of years after the Zatoichi
series was underway, this series beginning in 1969 from the Shochiku film
company was clearly influenced by it and possibly even trying to cash in
on its enduring popularity. Instead of a blind swordsman though, this series
centered on a blind swordswoman. The series only lasted for a little over
one year but in that time they made four episodes all running at around
85-minutes. The actress who played Oichi was Yoko Matsuyama – best known
at the time for her role on a television show rather than as a film actress.
She had been the main character on a popular show called “Seven Faces of
Princess Koto” in which she went undercover in feudal times to ferret out
crime. After the fourth episode of this series, Yoko quit the entertainment
business to focus on home life. The only other film credit I can find of
hers is a 1966 film called “Judo Showdown” in which she apparently had
a small role.
It is difficult not to compare these films to
the Zatoichi series and in most aspects they come up short. The films seem
to be on a much smaller budget in terms of production values and they are
not able to re-create the sense of Japan from those times as much of the
running time takes place either inside buildings or out in the open countryside.
And not surprisingly, Yoko is not able to emulate swordsmanship in the
same way that Shintaro Katsu was able to in the Zatoichi series – though
to a large degree they use the same technique. The films are also less
ambitious with smaller set pieces – though they get bigger in the last
two films. Even so, the films are quite enjoyable and Yoko creates a fascinatingly
ambivalent character who manages to keep surviving though this is not a
life that she wants and one that she sadly wishes she could leave. One
can also only wonder if the Lady Snowblood films would have been made without
the success of these films.
Like Zatoichi she wanders about Japan on foot
from town to town – though unlike Zatoichi she is a bounty hunter rather
than a masseuse and is always impeccably dressed in kimonos with her hair
pulled neatly back and her face powdered in white. Her handicap and profession
make her a loner, but in each episode she finds herself tangled in other
people’s problems and is forced at some point to pull her sword out of
its cane – sometimes reluctantly, sometimes not. Though she tries to be
tough and distant in love, she always falls for someone and in return is
desired by many men, but as she says in one scene “I am not good for any
man”. Deep down she wants only to be a normal woman with husband and children
but often feels unworthy of male love and in the end she always walks away
alone once again. She kills for her living, but as often as not finds herself
lending her sword to the side of the oppressed for nothing – simply because
it is the right thing to do.
The Crimson Bat: The Blind Swordswoman
Directed by: Matsuda Teiji
Year: 1969
Production Company: Shochiku
Running Time: 84 minutes
The first in the series gives a lot of background
on Oichi through various flashbacks. As a child her mother deserted her
for a gambler and in the same night the young girl had an accident that
caused her to lose her sight. Left alone in the world, a kindly older man
takes her in and brings her up, but her world is once again thrown into
chaos when a group of men show up one night and kill her adoptive father.
She learns that her mother is still alive and is now a brothel owner in
another town and Oichi goes to find her. On the way though she comes across
the men who killed the old man and she swings her cane wildly at them in
anger and they decide that she needs killing before she reveals too much
to the wrong people. Fortunately, a gruff samurai comes upon the scene
and rescues her.
He sees something special in her – incredible
instincts and reflexes - and decides to train her to defend herself. She
is a natural and within months is a magnificent swordswoman – able to defend
herself simply by sound and her other senses. Before going their separate
ways, he tells her to never unsheathe her sword or she will never be able
to live a normal life. With these new found skills she moves on to look
for her mother. In the narrative that follows Oichi comes across her bitter
mother, a man looking for his daughter that he deserted twenty years previously
and the man who killed her adoptive father. Revenge ensues.
Trapped, Crimson Bat
Directed by: Matsuda Teiji
Year: 1969
Production Company: Shochiku
Running Time: 84 minutes
By the second film in the series, Oichi was
using her specialized sword skill as a bounty hunter – tracking men down
and killing them in a flashing display of quick swordplay. This is immediately
announced as Oichi with her large straw hat hiding her face waits outside
an inn for a man with a price of fifty gold pieces on his head . When he
comes out she challenges him and after a duel, she carts his lifeless body
to the authorities for her reward. She soon finds herself at odds with
another female killer – the beautiful Oen (Kikko Matsuoka – "Black Lizard")
who carries around a bullwhip that she uses with laughing glee. She and
Oichi match up and Oichi makes the mistake of showing her mercy which Oen
returns with a pocketful of poisonous snakes thrown at Oichi. One of them
bites her and she stumbles off to die, but a poor fisherman (Yasunori Irie)
finds her and nurses her back to health.
The two of them slowly fall in love and Oichi
relishes the idea of a normal life, but as usual trouble finds her and
the edge of her sword. Oen tracks her down and brings along three experts
in death to fight Oichi – but after defeating them and coming across other
problems in which her specialty is needed, she realizes that she can never
have a normal life – her sword which she holds on to like a security blanket
will always come between her and such a life. So she walks away again –
but not until one final terrific confrontation with Oen and about thirty
minions. This last fight is nicely staged and shot – as they surround her
Oen bends down in a formal crouch and waits for them to attack. Later the
fight becomes very theatrical as the background color suddenly turns blue
and it plays out in slo-motion and freeze frames to good effect as if Oichi
has entered another world where she is in perfect harmony with her slashing
blade. The plot and this final fight seemed perhaps to be influential on
the Hong Kong film "Deaf Mute Heroine" that came out in 1971.
Watch Out Crimson Bat
Directed by: Ichimura Hirokazu
Year: 1969
Production Company: Shochiku
Running Time: 84 minutes
Within a few minutes of the film's beginning
Oichi finds herself in the middle of trouble and knee deep in dead men.
A horseman is shot and he falls off but is dragged behind as the horse
races down a country road. Oichi hears this and times it just perfectly
as she cuts him loose from the horse. It is too late though and on the
verge of death, he asks Oichi to deliver a scroll to a man in a nearby
village. She accepts his final wish. Soon men looking for the scroll surround
her but wish they hadn’t. As she proceeds with her mission, she runs into
two orphans and takes them under her wing and then comes across a samurai
(Goro Ibuki) who having witnessed her ability needs to challenge her to
a duel. The duel is interrupted though before blood is drawn, but he is
able to take the scroll away from her.
With her pride damaged, she decides to continue
on her quest and goes to the town to look for the samurai with a horde
of men still after her since they don’t know she has lost the scroll. The
town is under a black cloud – a wealthy man is trying to concoct an explosive
device and using the townspeople to make it – with many deaths being the
result. The scroll has the correct formula to do this and they attack Oichi
to get it. She is forced off a cliff and the samurai finds her and nurses
her back to health – and yes they begin to fall in love! Few men can resist
a woman with a sharp sword. Other complications ensue to the point where
she once again finds it necessary to walk away from people who care about
her. When she learns though that the munitions magnate is holding her friends
captive, she jumps on a horse and rides into a camp full of waiting killers.
This is a fairly large scale bloody fight as this third film in the series
definitely notches up the body count.
Crimson Bat: Wanted Dead or Alive
Directed by: Ichimura Hirokazu
Year: 1970
Production Company: Shochiku
Running Time: 83 minutes
The final appearance of the Crimson Bat (a
name by the way that appears totally fabricated by the West – there is
no reference to it in the films) is the best of the lot – full of action,
drama and romance. Oichi helps a woman escape the clutches of a high government
official to go off with the man she loves. The official puts a reward on
her head of fifty gold pieces and soon a menagerie of bounty hunters is
after her skin. Three of them band together to accomplish this –
one an expert swordsman, another a huge judo master and the third is deadly
with a chain. To escape, she heads for the fishing town of Itso but soon
comes face to face with Sankuro (Yuki Maguro – Omi in "Shogun"),
the swordsman. Their duel in the desert is interrupted by a sandstorm in
which Oichi is able to vanish.
Once in Itso Oichi wants only to mind her own
business, but the troubles within the town are soon bumping up against
her conscious. A corrupt local official – reporting to the one that is
after Oichi – has been tasked by Edo to move out the fishermen and build
a port in the town. The fishermen want compensation for this, but he refuses
to hand it out and he and his men begin to bully the fishermen to to move
them out. When a group of hooligans begin pushing around a woman next door
to Oichi she ignores it – but when the woman's child is beaten Oichi is
soon in the middle of it and knocking the men about (using only her cane
which she does when she wants to only teach a lesson in civility). The
three bounty hunters also show up, but Sankuro begins to find Oichi most
appealing and assists her to escape the other two. Oichi sides with the
fishermen in their struggle and comes against a master samurai (Tanba Tetsuro)
and a large band of bad guys. The finale turns bloody as she strides into
town and does a mini-Azumi on them.
Like the Zatoichi films, the character of Oichi
grows on the viewer with each episode as she tries to find a place for
herself in society – though in the end her talent with the sword curses
her attempts to do so. In some ways she is a more complicated figure than
Zatoichi who seems to accept his fate in life and so enjoys the little
pleasures – she rails against her fate but also takes great pride and at
times pleasure in her ability to wield a sword. It is a shame that the
series ended so quickly with so many more miles to go for Oichi.
As far as I know, the films are only out on poor
DVD transfers from VHS sources that are dubbed into English and have Danish
subtitles. No doubt a good transfer and in Japanese, the films would be
even better. As it is:
My rating for the series: 7.5
Background information on series and actress
from "Japanese Cinema: The Essential Handbook"
