The 60s in Japan was truly a golden age when you saw highly skilled second tier genre directors like Tokuzo Tanaka making artistic B movies, like The Betrayal (1966). I am familiar with Tanaka for his work on the Shintaro Katsu Zatoichi series (New Tale of Zatoichi, Zatoicihi the Fugitive, and Zatoichi's Vengeance). Here he uses his classic skills (learned as a second unit director under Akira Kurosawa for Rashomon) in a Raizo Ichikawa samurai vehicle. The film questions samurai values in a way that calls to mind great films such as Kobayashi's Hara Kiri. However, this one is more conventional in setting the scene for massive body counts of defeated foes by Ichikawa. The Kiso Valley on location shooting is a marvel as are Tanaka's classic framing and dynamic camera work.
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