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The Shinsengumi samurai are recruiting men proficient, fast and focused enough to join their elite ranks. Teenager Sozaburo Kano emerges as one of the very few who possess the skill to enter this lethal world but there is a problem which potentially makes him more dangerous than his ability with a blade. He is bishounen - a 'pretty boy', whose feminine features ignite both desire and distrust in his fellow warriors. Also, the elders question whether he's as delicate as his appearance would suggest. To assuage the doubts of superiors he is ordered to execute a samurai who has broken their strict laws, and when Kano decapitates the man with smooth efficiency, he begins to get ahead.
For much of the time, the story of Kano's career is more a thriller than an action movie, with an unidentified killer on the loose. Elsewhere, the film proves most concerned with relationships: the intricacies of one man lusting after another and the acidic jealousy this can engender. Gohatto also contains lighter, almost comic moments, ensuring any genre description is going to contain more slashes than a samurai sword fight.
The director, Nagisa Oshima, remains best known for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983) and his highly controversial In the Realm of the Senses (1976); Gohatto shows the veteran filmmaker in equally rebellious mood. At times he comes close to cliché, creating a world as gorgeous as cherry blossom, but there's enough confident iconoclasm to maintain a welcome freshness. The film's 19th-century setting might have presented a world of improbable beauty and courteous killers; instead it resonates with modern concerns. The portrayal of homosexuality in the military and the relationship between youth and age ensure that this is no cosy fable, but an altogether more interesting and engaging slice of samurai fiction.
Gavin Collinson
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Ai no corrida (In the Realm of the Senses) (Fernando Pérez 1990)
