The opening alone — a Yagyu henchman catching a blade with his face plus a spray-of-blood shower — is already mind-blowing, but above all it's the meticulous obsession with staging by Shintaro Katsu and his crew that's simply too magnificent. The artistry of electronic sound effects mixed with concrete sounds, the synergy of varied camerawork with its cuts, angles and focus, and the way silence is balanced in and out of the cut-ins and cut-outs — it's all just too cool. The battles against the kunoichi disguised one after another as traveling entertainers and farmers, the hidden blade inside a daikon, the psychedelic effect created by camerawork synced to the rhythm of drums, the direction of the gazes and the spinning kimono patterns — highlight after highlight. And of course Daigoro gets plenty of action with all the baby cart gadgets. The battle on the sand dunes is Japan's spaghetti western meets El Topo. "The head — I can hear my head weeping." This can't be played on ordinary Japanese DVD players, but it can be viewed on a computer and the like. A Japanese edition is also available, but this overseas edition is more affordable. Directed by Kenji Misumi; released April 1972; 81 min. (Original Japanese text by COMPUMA)