The Sword of Doom

Ryunosuke Tsukue is introduced by murdering an elderly Buddhist pilgrim who prays for death. The act reveals his cold, amoral nature and his lack of empathy for human suffering. This brutal opening establishes the tone for his ruthless path ahead.

During a fencing match intended to be non-lethal, he defeats his opponent but then reveals the affair by coercing the opponent's wife to help him throw the match. The coercion turns the contest into a deadly duel and exposes Ryunosuke's manipulation and cruelty. The crowd remains unaware that honor has given way to domination.

Upon learning of the affair, the husband vows divorce and confronts Ryunosuke after the match. In a drawn-out escalation, Ryunosuke delivers an illegal lunge and kills the opponent with a single stroke. The kill follows the official draw, underscoring Ryunosuke's disdain for rules.

After the killing, Ryunosuke flees the town, cutting down many of the slain man's clan members who pursue him. The violence marks the start of his long flight and escalating brutality. He disappears into the countryside as enemies close in.

Two years pass, and to make a living he joins the Shinsengumi, a group of rōnin aligned with the shogunate. He moves through violence with his usual emotional detachment, finding a harsh rhythm to his new life. His skills as a swordsman are reshaped into a tool for a brutal, state-sanctioned milieu.

He remains emotionally blank even at home with his mistress and their baby son. The relationship underscores his inability to connect on a human level, sustained by a life of violence. Everyday moments coexist with the constant undercurrent of lethal work.

The younger brother of the man Ryunosuke killed vows revenge and plans to meet him to settle the score. Ryunosuke prepares for a confrontation, his confidence steady but increasingly shadowed by the looming duel. The threat foreshadows a test of his claimed invincibility.

During a botched assassination attempt, Ryunosuke sees Shimada Toranosuke in action and for the first time doubts that his skill is unbeatable. That moment unsettles his confidence and foreshadows a turning point in his arc. The encounter challenges the myth of his invincibility.

That same night, his mistress, horrified by his unremitting evil, attempts to kill him; he retaliates by murdering her in the gardens, while their sleeping child cries inside. The act deepens the sense of doom that haunts him. He flees rather than face the consequences of his choices.

After the murder, he returns to the gang of assassins at an oiran house in the Shimabara district of Kyoto. The brothel becomes a field of sinister meetings and rituals, where he confronts his own unsettled state of mind. He moves deeper into a world of ghosts and blood.

In a quiet room within the brothel, he begins seeing the ghosts of all the people he has killed. Shimada's words echo: the sword is the soul; study the soul to know the sword; evil mind, evil sword. The haunting drives him toward a psychological collapse that blurs reality and memory.

He discovers that the apprentice oiran is the pilgrim's granddaughter—the very girl he murdered at the film's start. The revelation cracks his remaining defenses and accelerates his downward spiral. The cycle of violence and guilt reaches a concentrated point.

Driven by guilt and fury, he slashes at the shadows and then attacks his fellow assassins. The gang’s numbers dwindle as his violence grows unchecked, and the line between foe and kin dissolves. The room fills with chaos and the scent of burning tissue and fear.

Bleeding and enraged, he slashes through dozens of his enemies as the courtesan house burns around him. He lunges forward one last time, and the film ends with a freeze-frame of him mid sword slash. The boundary between hunter and haunted man collapses in a moment of final, unresolved fury.