On Netflix right now is a series that grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go. That’s not a statement I make lightly. While I wasn’t satisfied with the ending (which I won’t spoil), I simply could not turn away from this well written and superbly animated series.
This is a film series that draws upon a rich history of Japanese Samurai films and includes scenes from some of the best movies of this genre ever made. Again, not spoiling anything (yet), there are call back scenes in this film that come directly from Lady Snowblood, Lone Wolf and Cub, Hanzo the Razor, Seven Samurai and the Samurai Trilogy – Duel at Ganryu Island. It is a joy to watch.
Spoilers Ahead – You have been Warned
Blue Eye Samurai takes place in 1657 just before the Great Fire of Meireki in Edo
(now Tokyo). As many Samurai films do, it features a lone revenge seeking samurai. Our samurai, Mizu, is on a quest to kill the four white men who were in Japan at the time of her birth because one of the four is her father. Because she is not racially “pure,” she is an outcast in feudal Japan. So she hides her biracial identity and her gender in order to survive because as she has been told ‘revenge is a luxury for men.’
Mizu is no withering flower. She is an expert with a sword and reminded me of Kyuzo, the small and deadly samurai in Seven Samurai portrayed by Seiji Miyaguchi in the 1954 film. If she draws her sword, her sword will draw blood. Speaking of blood, there is plenty of it in this film along with nudity, sex and violence. It is not for the squeamish.
Mizu is not the only character in this film, but hers is the most important story. There is the spoiled princess who is being married off to the Shogun’s second son. There is the disgraced samurai who wants to kill Mizu for causing his dishonor. He is in love with the Princess and the Princess in love with him. There is the disabled cook who wants to be Mizu’s apprentice. But Mizu does not allow any of their stories, any of their desires, to interfere with her singular goal of exacting vengeance on the four men she believes are responsible for her birth and difficult life.
Is Blue Eye Samurai perfect? Nope, but it is one of the best film series on Netflix to date.
