Sleepy Eyes of Death 11: In the Spider's Lair Film Review

The film begins and ends with Morricone styled music playing with a lot of death between the bookends. I am nearing the end of the Raizô Ichikawa Sleepy Eyes of Death films - only one more to go - and though very similar in structure they have been a pleasure to watch. As stoic a character as one can imagine - apart from society because of his Black Mass and half foreign birth - he constantly tells people not to involve him in their problems, but their problems always become his. His unlucky fate. This is a good one - normally Nemuri Kyoshiro becomes entangled in the ruthless efforts of some Lord to gain power - but here he comes across pure evil and his sword is drawn to smite it like a moth to a flame.

As the film opens, he is walking alone across the landscape in his straw basket headgear - a style I would love to see return. He is visiting the grave of his mother after more than ten-years and comes across an elderly retainer who once worked for his family. In all these films, we never learn too much of his pre-Ronin days, but apparently, he came from a very high-ranking family. The retainer has been tending to Nemuri's mother's grave all these years. He asks a favor of Nemuri - to which Nemuri says "I don't do favors" - but he gets drawn in anyways. The old man has been caring for a young man all these years - he too was born by Satan worshippers and thinks himself worthless. He wants Nemuri to advise the boy to leave town before the Damo and his sister come for him. The town is under the oppression of the crazy brother who likes poisoning people when he has not set them in a field to practice his archery on. The sister Murakasi (Mako Midori) is even more insane with a laugh like a witch from MacBeth who takes men for a night of pleasure and then kills them the next day. They are the children of one of the Shogun's mistresses and were supposed to have committed seppuku two years before but were secretly sent into exile. In a castle with a huge retinue of servants and soldiers.

When they come for the young man, Nemuri offers to take his place - "either you take my offer or I will kill you". They take his offer. Things don't work out at the castle and the killing begins. They set up numerous traps for Nemuri - with two separate women trying to seduce him and kill him - he is used to that ploy by now. Admittedly, if a woman came up to me and said she needed me, I would be a little suspicious as well. Not happened yet. The body count keeps rising and I ask myself, just how many retainers do they have? Even if they kill Nemuri - and the siblings keep arguing which one will do it - they will have a servant shortage. This comes in at 80-minutes and doesn't waste a minute. Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda, a veteran of samurai pulp films.