This is Bloody Spear at Mt. Fuji which I bought from Arrow quite a while back, and watched one night after reading a bit of interesting and questionable history about this being the director’s first movie back in Japan after being involved in the occupied Manchurian film industry. Anyway… I actually ended up loving this one! It’s a very… warm and lived-in period piece film, where the sense of day-to-day life in these historical sets feels very strong. Like there’s scenes like a few lords stopping by on a particular road to eat with a view of Mt. Fuji, blocking the way for all of the commoners, and then the rain coming and everyone having to scramble on their way to shelter. Or just the central character of this spear-bearer, and his relationship with a kid he meets on the road. Or a whole bunch of other side characters. It feels alive in a way few movies set in the Edo period do.