Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo

Sadao Yamanaka's rollicking, irreverent jidaigeki (period comedy) — a film that gleefully subverts every convention of the serious samurai drama. A cheap pot, unknowingly containing a map to a hidden treasure worth a million ryo, passes from hand to hand through a colorful cast of commoners, criminals, and one magnificently grumpy one-eyed, one-armed swordsman: the legendary Tange Sazen, who couldn't care less about wealth and just wants to be left alone. Yamanaka, who tragically died in the war at just twenty-eight, directs with a light, modern touch that feels decades ahead of its time — the humor is dry, the characters are vividly drawn, and the action unfolds with an easy naturalism that makes most period films of the era look stilted by comparison. A thoroughly entertaining gem and a tantalizing glimpse of a major talent lost too soon.