Before leaving prison, Oida uncomfortably enters into an agreement with his cell mate: in exchange for a half-share of 30,000,000 yen, he is to assassinate three strangers given to him on a list. However, upon meeting his first potential victim, Oida has second thoughts. Yet, even as he tries to back out, the body count starts climbing. Oida must now try to alert the people on his list of their impending danger, and find out why they are being targeted in the first place.
The ghost of a samurai's wife takes revenge on her husband.
Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.
(segment "Miminashi Hôichi no hanashi") (uncredited)
고이즈미 야쿠모의 괴기담 중에서 4편의 에피소드를 영상으로 옮긴 옴니버스 영화. 출세를 위해 아내를 버리고 떠났던 무사(‘흑발’), 눈보라 속에서 설녀를 만나 목숨을 건진 청년(‘설녀’), 귀신을 피하기 위해 불경을 몸에 써넣는 맹인 악사(‘귀 없는 호이치’), 찻잔 속에서 기묘한 얼굴을 본 무사(‘찻잔 속’)의 이야기가 오싹한 공포와 함께 펼쳐진다. 환상적인 색채와 표현적인 세트를 이용한 뛰어난 미술과 촬영이 돋보이며, 다케미쓰 도루의 실험적인 음악 또한 탁월하다. 에 이어 두 번째로 칸영화제 심사위원특별상을 수상했다.
