Second in Kenji Misumi’s mid-‘60s Sword Trilogy, this contemporary tale focuses on the top two members of a University Kendo Society. That’s the martial arts form where opponents under heavy protective gear whack away at each other with bamboo beating sticks. But once purity-driven, over-disciplined Kokubun (Raizô Ichikawa) is chosen team captain over Yûsuke Kawazu’s less severe Kagawa, internal battle in the club threatens to outpace any challenge from other schools. Handsomely shot in WideScreen b&w, Misumi’s formal control is nearly as awesome as it was in KIRU/’62, a TechniColor historical that came first in the trilogy. But where that period piece covered decades and could leave you floundering to follow the narrative thread, KEN is far more straightforward. Not necessarily a good thing when the adapted short story is loaded with the familiar fetishes of author Yukio Mishima: Ultra-Nationalism, extreme military discipline, repressed homoerotic tension, suicidal vanity and some particularly venomous misogyny.* Eve in the Garden of Eden had nothing on the sexual temptation & luring lies Kagawa’s sister uses to court and then destroy Ichikawa’s purer-than-thou Kokubun. Misumi handles this all brilliantly, with visual flourishes that never call attention to themselves (KIRU far more technically showy), but the underlying theme of denial, supported by exhausting training to repress the pleasures of sun, surf & sex before a championship meet, certainly comes thru.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: When does the team have time for classes?
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *See these fetishes play out in Paul Schrader’s visually alluring, dramatically slippery bio-pic MISHIMA/’85. (Though no gay angle.) Or in Mishima’s own short, PATRIOTISM/’66. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2009/07/patriotism-1966.html
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