Serpent

Buntarō Futagawa, 1925, for Tsumasaburō Bandō's company. Heizaburo, a low-rank samurai, is ruined by slander and becomes the kind of swordsman the town calls a serpent. The censors blocked the original title, Outlaw, and cut more than a fifth; Serpent, meaning the way Bandō moves, got through. BFI, listing Japanese films of 1925, singled out his performance and the last fight. Kabuki makeup, then editing that is faster than kabuki. The opening titles say a villain's name is not always a fact.