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Japan, late 18th dentury: After the death of Lord Owari, the Shogun
makes Tanuma the next chief elder - but while Tanuma is good at
sweet-talking to the shogun, he is actually the most corrupt and money-
and power-hungry politician you have ever seen, and with the help of
several rich merchants, he soon forces a rice and oil shortage on his
populace, just to later be able to charge them tenfolds. Taking control of
the gold mining business is his next goal ... There is one man who
stands in Lord Tanuma's way though: The man with the purple hood, a
mysterious but masterful ronin, who thwarts Tanuma's plans whenever he can
and has no problem taking on his entire army. And he's successful in
hurting Tanuma no doubt - but then again, what can one swordsman do
against a well-oiled powerful economic and political organisation ... Lord
Tanuma has one weakness though, that's Osen, the pretty young daughter of
his underling Shigarakiya. To impress her, he hires the well-reknowned
(but facially distorted) painter Hidemori, and when that doesn't suffice,
he tries to "persuade" her father to give him his daughter's
hand in marriage, first with small (and not so small) favours, then with
violence, even murder once Shigarakiya tries to defect. The shogun comes
by as Tanuma has promised him the unveiling of Hidemori's latest
masterpiece. But at the ceremony, Hidemori reveals himself to be the man
in the purple hood, actually a gouvernment agent, and he brings proof
about Tanuma's wrong-doings - and the shogun sees that justice is done ... Nothing
special, just your average chambara, with a masked, Robin
Hood-like lead. Storywise,t he film is a bit on the
over-convoluted side,a nd it could have done with a few less key
characters and more focus on Osen's story, which seems to fade in and out
of the film frequently, but then again, one does get all the key points of
the story, even if the characters remain a tad flat. In all, not a
complete waste of time because the film has its charm as vintage genre
entertainment, but also a movie that's rather wuickly forgotten.
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