There's little more that separates a good revenge story from a bad one than how much the writer can involve the audience. It's not enough for the protagonist to crave and exact revenge, the audience must crave it as much as he does. Yawns and snoozes are not far off in cutting down a number of incompetent henchmen if the viewer doesn't root for every slice and every punch thrown. In that aspect, although far from something that will pack Cinematheques, TRAIL OF BLOOD is a success as a functional genre piece.With previous experience in the field helming entries for the ZATOICHI and SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH series, director Kazuo Ikehiro writes this first entry in the MIKOGAMI trilogy in the pulpy style that swept chambara in the early 70's and with regards to a serialized character not unlike blind masseur Ichi or Nemuri Kyoshiro. An alienated ronin hellbent for revenge, an angel of death 'walking the path of demons'. Whereas the traumatizing event that sends the protagonist in search for revenge was usually presented in a flashback fashion in spaghetti westerns, Ikehiro crafts his story in a linear fashion, something that detracts the element of surprise that followed Italian men with no names, but on the other hand allows for the rage and anger to gradually build up in both protagonist and audience.In American exploitation films of the same time, it was usually the female that was ravaged and humiliated. Here we have the male protagonist being tortured in the hands of yakuzas. Something made more frustrating by the fact that Jokichi is a master swordsman only holding back for the sake of his family. When he finds his wife and son murdered by the same scoundrels he saved her from before he married her, all hell breaks loose. There's nothing to hold back for anymore and Jokichi cuts down his way through a vast number of disposable extras with little or no effort. The fights lack the intense stylization and bloodletting of LONE WOLF AND CUB, a cornerstone of early 70's chambara in more ways than one, but are savage and vigorous enough to keep genre fans content. Ikehiro knows he won't be getting any retrospectives in the future for his work and his direction is more serviceable than outstanding but it will have to do.All in all an entertaining, if not slightly disjointed, fix of slice and dice mayhem with a bleak first half that will also appeal to fans of revenge exploitation movies and a large bodycount.

The 70's were a turning point in Japanese Cinema. For the time being, the large, epic, slow-paced, Chambara Films that were popular in the 50's and 60's were replaced by a new breed of Samurai Films that were exploitative, action packed, and very bloody. And while I love the samurai epics of past era's, I have to say, I also love the good old trashy/bloody samurai films of the 70's. Trail of Blood is one of these films.The first entry in the Mikogami Trilogy tells the story of Jokichi of Mikogami, a drifter and master swordsman, who during his travels happens to meet an employee of an inn named Okinu. Okinu is obsessed over by a local Yakuza gang leader named Kyubei, an evil man who tries to force himself upon the defenseless Okinu. Luckily, Jokichi is there and as he stands up for the innkeeper, he simultaneously makes an enemy out of Kyubei. Jokichi and Okinu decide to flee together and eventually end up starting a family in the countryside. Years pass without incident, until one day when Jokichi ventures into town only to be spotted by his enemies. After being kidnapped and tortured, Jokichi returns home to find his wife and child murdered. Infuriated, Jokichi sets out to avenge his family.Trail of Blood has to be one of the darkest, serious, and utterly brutal films I've seen in awhile. For example, on top of losing his family, the film's protagonist is beaten, tortured, tormented, urinated on, and also loses two of his fingers in a very brutal scene which is not recommended for squeamish viewers. The whole film is full of evil men doing terrible things; attempted rapes, murder, torture, betrayals. Trail of Blood has all these things in spades. Our only hope in this film is that Jokichi will take out as many of these tyrants as possible... and he does... in style, no less.Although this film has a decent-but familiar-revenge plot, most of the film is filled with wall to wall action. Jokichi is an utterly fierce and no nonsense character. Don't go into this expecting any light-hearted comedic scenes to balance out the mean spiritedness inherit within the film, there aren't any. The film's fight scenes are choreographed well and while I'd describe this film as "bloody", it's still not any where near as bad as the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Blood sprays out intermittently and isn't a constant throughout the film.Obviously, the film's main focus is action, and because of this the film suffers from a few weaknesses. Little time is paid to character development but this isn't such an unforgivable sin for an action movie. One thing I noticed though, is that during certain battle scenes, it seems that the corpses (that should be)littered throughout the battle field seem to disappear?!?! Yes unfortunately, Trail of Blood does suffer from some poor editing and has some minor continuity issues.Bottom Line- Trail of Blood has its share of faults, but is still a fun entry into early 70's Chambara.

So you've had a bad day...and I do not mean that craptacular song either.....tell that to Jokichi a famous wandering Samurai who falls in love with a prostitute after she cares for his infected toe. Poor Jokichi takes her away from mobsters who used her for sex and marries her, has a son and actually becomes a legitimate craftsman. Not bad right? Wrong!! As years pass Jokichi encounters the mobsters again. Jokichi is swore never to raise his sword again and because of this oath to avoid conflict with them he cuts 2 of his own fingers off hoping this will appease them...it doesn't.Shortly after the Mobsters find out where his wife and son are, killing the son and then rape and kill his wife. Once Jokichi comes home to this he realizes that his oath must now be broken so he dons his Samurai sword and garb to get vengeance on the men and their bosses that have ruined his life.The first movie in the series The Trail of Blood sets up the story and gives us the general idea of how the trilogy is going to play out. Along the trail Jokichi finds a few friends and many foes along with a lot of fighting. There are a good amount of fight scenes that are choreographed rather well but if your looking for the splat of the Lone Wolf and Cub Series you will be a bit disappointed. Though there is some red stuff here and there we do not see nearly as much of the infamous "geyser of blood" kill sequences that littered the 70's Samurai scene that you would expect.That being said what you do get is a solid samurai flick that will entertain and have you wanting to see the next installment of the series. The plight of Jokichi is the highlight and seeing how he deals with each Yakuza Boss and his henchmen is what makes this film entertaining. The finale of part one is a large fight with many Yakuza henchman which seems fitting knowing that as it ends there are still several more Yakuza Boss's left for the chopping block.In the end if you are a 70's Samurai movie fan you will find a nice little package here. Though it lacks the splat of the classic Lone Wolf and Cub series it is still an entertaining film that will fill your need for Samurai Swordplay.Score: 7/10: Good: Very solid example of what made the 70's Samurai scene so special. Despite the lack of Splat there is no shortage of fight scenes and the character of Jokichi is an entertaining one that will hold your interest.The Trail of Blood is out now by AnimEigo DVD who have once again done a nice job of bring us another example of fine 70's Samurai action!!!