Incident at Blood Pass, known as Machibuse (Ambush) in Japan, is distinctive as the fourth and final appearance of Toshiro Mifune as a yojimbo (bodyguard) character. This character was first introduced in the two fun Akira Kurosawa movies, Yojimbo (review) and Sanjuro (review). This film was made long after Toshiro Mifune’s golden era with Akira Kurosawa, and it was produced with no involvement from Kurosawa.

I say “a” yojimbo character above, and not “the” yojimbo character, because there is a great deal of inconsistency between Toshiro Mifune's 4 yojimbo portrayals. Even from the first to second movies by Akira Kurosawa, Mifune’s yojimbo character had to become a more socially inclined fellow to be inserted into the second story.

It could be fairly argued that the setting of the first film did not provide a large cast of characters deserving of the yojimbo's kind graces. So it was not too far of a stretch for the isolated, more self-interested yojimbo of the first film to evolve into the more helpful and community oriented yojimbo revealed in Sanjuro (Kurosawa’s sequel). However, Toshiro Mifune’s yojimbo morphed in less pleasant directions for the third yojimbo appearance, Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (review). Mifune really played an almost completely different character in his Zatoichi film series appearance.

In Incident at Blood Pass, Toshiro Mifune’s yojimbo character seems much more in line with the yojimbo he portrayed in Kurosawa’s films, but the story itself is regrettably weak and hops into the dreaded soap opera realm.

Until now, I have managed to avoid watching the “soap opera-ish” Samurai flicks I have read about and that are apparently common in Japan. This film reminds me how lucky I have been to have completely skipped them.

Viewing Incident at Blood Pass makes me want to work hard to make sure I am only selecting substantial and credible Samurai movies for my own future entertainment and for reviews to be placed in the Samurai category on this site. 

Incident at Blood Pass had to be reviewed because of its yojimbo and Mifune connection, and many fans of Toshiro Mifune and those who enjoyed Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Sanjuro, will likely want to watch or add this movie to their collection as they would with Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo.

Even though this yojimbo character was more reminiscent of the character as portrayed in Kurosawa’s yojimbo movies, I think the Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo film had more going on to be of amusement and interest for a western viewer. Though Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo did feel sloppy, Incident at Blood Pass feels almost pointless, which I think is an even less appealing distinction.

I presume this less-than-satisfying film made money for Mifune’s production company, but watching it helps expose why many of Akira Kurosawa's films stand out and why Kurosawa shines so much brighter than some of Japan’s other early filmmakers. 

In defense of those involved with this project, of whom many are no longer with us today, I assume the writer was instructed or chose to write something that would pander to a general audience, and everyone else was on board just doing their jobs. 

Worst Scene in Movie
It's a toss up between the silly fight scene between the gambler and Mifune early on, and the scene where the female lead is shown to be moping around unhappy with her new plight in life (after just being rescued from an abusive husband, and now in a much better predicament). 

The lead female who is so strong and significant in the film mere moments later, is presented inappropriately as a whiny, annoying woman. This is awful storytelling. The soap opera form required some weak emotional female behavior, and it was decided to cheat and pull that emotion from a completely inappropriate character, as if the audience would not care about the filmmakers' laziness. There was absolutely no transformation for this character. She was defined completely differently for the purposes of individual scenes, with no consideration to the progression of the story.

Well, I guess after writing all that, I have to concede the annoying and inappropriate moping scene wins out over the silly fight scene for "Worst Scene in the Movie."

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New Title Suggestion for Incident at Blood Pass
-Soap Opera on a Mountain Pass. 

Key Negative Points
-Uninspiring Story
-Sappy and overacted in a few too many scenes
-Ridiculously awful 70’s era, western influenced soundtrack exaggerates the whole mess. 

Key Positive Points
-Mifune as a yojimbo character one last time.
-Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi from Zatoichi film series) plays opposite Mifune again, this time in the role of a villain. It is interesting to see Katsu here with Mifune in a role so completely different from his role in Zatoichi meets Yojimbo.

Savage Japan Misc. Tidbits
With only 4 yojimbo movies featuring Mifune’s presence, it is a reasonable category of movie to try to collect or check off as viewed.

I suggest watching them in the order they were made. The first 2 by Akira Kurosawa are both mandatory additions to a Japanese film library, but they are very different films with the first title Yojimbo being an undeniable classic and Sanjuro being a less significant, but entertaining sequel. Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo is a sloppy serial movie with some fun elements, and Incident at Blood Pass restores Mifune to a yojimbo role more like the Kurosawa films, but in a story that is less inspiring than you will wish for. You can always decide as you go along if you want to view or collect only the first 2 Kurosawa films or all 4 of Mifune's yojimbo movies.

For Japanese Language Students
As for practicing Japanese listening comprehension with this movie, I would advise against Incident at Blood Pass. Many Japanese film choices are likely to entertain you more while providing as good or better conversations for picking out words and phrases. There are much better Samurai movies (reviewed here) to pick from.

Remember that Samurai period movies are likely to use some language that is not thought of as “current” Japanese, so beginning Japanese students should not rely on Samurai movies exclusively for all of their exposure to spoken Japanese.