Hibari's Favorite 2
          
Director: Yasushi Sasaki
Year: 1960
Rating: 7.5
The last thing I expected from a Misora Hibari film was a kill count as large as any of those Ninkyo Eiga films with Ken Takakura or Koji Tsuruta. Bloodless but our little Hibari is a killing machine. She also has the help of baby-faced Tomisaburô Wakayama, who contributes his share. And this being Hibari, you can count on a few songs. Hibari is a favorite of mine no matter the genre - up there with Fuji Junko as my two favorite Japanese actresses. Her films always perk me up. Not that I really needed perking up but why not. Usually, they are charming comedies or light dramas - period or contemporary - in which Hibari works her way through problems or helps others in trouble. She was so popular that often her name would appear in the title such as this one - Hibari Ohako Ojo Kichisa.



She plays Lady Kichisa who is wandering the land looking for her brother that she was separated from at a young age and for the man who killed her parents and forced her family to lose their title by stealing the sword given to them by the Shogun. She is of course dressed as a male. And can only identify the man by his severed finger lost in the fight with her father. She comes across a group of men trying to take the daughter Otose (Maruyama Eiko) of an inn keeper for their own pleasure. She fights them off. She has learned a few skills along the way. The group works for Lord Kaminaga (Bando Kotaro) who is the finance minister and his sleazy brother. The Lord is missing a finger. You know where this is going.





She makes friends with swordsman Lord Kichisa (Tomisaburô) and a fighting priest (Kurokama Yatoro) - all with the same name - as well as a very incompetent pickpocket who always gets caught and has to run for it. Luckily, he is known as Speedy Sanji (Hanabusa Kim'ichi) and is an older boy who lost his sister years ago. Yup, you definitely know where this is headed. But you really aren't expecting that long walk we have witnessed in so many of these Japanese films to confront the bad guy and more minions than stars in the sky. And then of course a song. Excellent Hibari film.