The Fearless Avenger [The Mikogami Trilogy] — dvd movie review
One down and two to go. Having slain Kyubei at the end of The Trail of Blood, Jokichi now sets his sights on Chogoro and Chuji, the two remaining parties responsible for the deaths of his wife and son. As the film starts, Jokichi makes a reckless attempt towards killing Chogoro at wake for a Yakuza bigwig, with all the bosses in the land in attendance. This blatant disregard for rules and authority doesn’t go over too well with the higher ups, and Jokichi finds himself roughed up and tossed into the river. His goal seeming all the further out of reach, Jokichi reaches a new low. But then a golden opportunity presents itself: guard the daughter of the biggest bigwig of all, the endlessly intimidating Boss Thunder, on her return home to fulfill a contractual marriage. Doing so will not only provide him with some much needed money, but restore a bit of his standing and allow him a chance to get close to his two targets. Needless to say, Jokichi accepts, but he soon finds out that even the simplest jobs are never as easy or safe as they seem.
Something of a case of the middle-film-in-trilogy lulls, The Fearless Avenger plays out as more a narrative diversion than a contribution to the main thrust of Jokichi’s vengeance tale. While never an outright case of stalling for time, there are quite a few places that feel as if they could have been trimmed, or at least given a stronger sense of urgency so as to match that of the previous entry. In fact, Jokichi’s yojimbo mission doesn’t present itself until about 30 minutes in. For a normal film this isn’t really a problem, but The Fearless Avenger is only 80 minutes long, making that 30 minute mark quite close to the picture’s halfway point.
Complaints about pacing and energy aside, there are some interesting things to be found in The Fearless Avenger — in particular those relating to Jokichi’s character devolution. With this second film Jokichi’s thirst for revenge has taken quite a toll on him. Revenge in and of itself is not a valorous pursuit, and as such Jokichi’s intense and unwavering focus on catching Chogoro and Chuji has made him somewhat selfish and careless as a side effect. He launches into danger with an animalistic lack of restraint, putting strategy, planning, and responsibility behind his immediate need for vindication. More often than not this leads to some pretty dire consequences for our drifting hero, as well as putting him in some morally muddy waters. Case in point: At the very start of the film Jokichi witnesses some men accosting a young woman on a boat on which he is also a passenger. While in the previous film he would have leapt to her rescue immediately, in this case he sits and waits, oblivious, until he discovers the two attackers are Chogoro’s goons. It all maps to the classical Campbell hero’s journey model, in particular the pit of despair, but at points like this I wasn’t so sure I liked what Jokichi was becoming.
In the action corner, The Fearless Avenger is a bit weaker than its predecessor, but not to the degree I would call inferior. The action sequences, for the most part, don’t have the same oomph as those in the previous film, but they’re not without their moments of surprise. There are a couple sequences that will catch you off guard, and some reveals that follow up on events from the previous film in very nice fashion. The final battle on the banks of a creek bed is a blast, and (hopefully) serves as a barometer to those you will see in Slaughter in the Snow, the series’ final entry.
In closing, The Fearless Avenger is a lesser entry in the Mikogami Trilogy, but still an interesting one. It may not maintain the same frenetic pace of the original, but its work toward fleshing out Jokichi’s desperate state of mind does help to ground the character in a reality not seen with most revenge artists. If anything, it has me excited for the third installment (to be reviewed later this week).
The DVD.
Pretty much everything said about the previous disc can be said here. AnimEigo’s DVD maintains the film’s original 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The transfer is of good quality, with a few small problems in odd places (one scene of Jokichi in the woods looked faded yellow on my television), most likely due to the quality of source prints worked with. Still, the image is crisp and clear and better than any other medium through which you would otherwise see The Fearless Avenger, be it VHS or import/bootleg DVD. The Japanese soundtrack comes in a nice stereo mix, and given that this film features a lot more of the awesome staccato-brass score than the last one, it’s one you’ll most likely enjoy listening to.
The DVD features the usual AnimEigo production notes (With this and the last one focusing primarily on geographic education. Still good.), production stills, and trailers, including ones for The Fearless Avenger, Shogun Assassin, Demon Spies, and Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman.
All in all, this is a decent disc for a decent film. Being that the film is a piece of one larger story I would recommend picking up the box set rather than purchasing this one individually.
I’ll be adding screen shots this Friday
About the Author
Have Something to Say?