Hanzo The Razor: Sword Of Justice (1972) 7/10

There was a time in my life when Samurai were totally interesting and very cool. I've grown older, learned more about the real samurai way and frankly the romanticized films lost their luster. That being said I do check out samurai films every now and then, especially when there's a new or different twist on a familiar theme. Hanzo The Razor is a very different samurai that not only uses his blade, but his tool and I'm not talking about a wrench.

Hanzo The Razor is about a rouge lawman that refuses to succumb to the corruption that prevails in his colleagues. When he finds out his dirty boss and a criminal share the same mistress he sets out to discover what the connection is and expose his boss for the unscrupulous cad he truly is.

Beautifully directed and choreographed much in the same vein as the Lone Wolf and Cub aka shogun assassin series Hanzo the Razor delivers visually. The film is from 1972 but looks like it could have been made yesterday. The badass lawman is a familiar character and here is played very satisfyingly with Hanzo bending the rules and using a very firm hand to get the information he seeks. He also uses a very firm...penis. Yes, that's right. When interrogating beautiful female suspects he uses his phallus to get the information. Using a variety of techniques it all boils down to Hanzo being a sex machine that the women can't help but spill their guts to. The film treads on thin ground here since none of the women want to have sex with Hanzo. Yup, he pretty much rapes them, and halfway through they decide that they can't get enough and will give any information Hanzo wants as long as he doesn't stop. So apparently Japanese women in Feudal Japan love to be raped but a man who's hung. It's played totally ridiculously and the whole film has an unrealistic feel to it. This isn't the gritty realism found in the yakuza papers films. Its fantasy, albeit ethically shaky fantasy.

Hanzo The Razor: Sword of Justice is the first film of a trilogy and I would gladly check out the other two. The film is fun and over the top with a twisty script and a hard boiled attitude. Take out the penis interrogation and you still have a satisfying entertaining film, it just pushes the film into a more unique realm that few films reach.

Gore- mild/medium

Nudity - medium

Overall - 7/10