Samurai Fiction

A young warrior, Heishiro Inukai, sets out to recover a ceremonial sword stolen from his clan. The thief is a ronin who had been entrusted with guarding it, and Heishiro's father, a clan adviser, sends two of his most capable ninja after his son to keep him out of serious trouble. Heishiro is joined by two friends whose eagerness is not matched by their skill, and their pursuit soon proves more complicated than they expected. The film is a Japanese action comedy that plays with the conventions of classic samurai cinema, presented largely in black and white and accompanied by a modern rock-influenced score.

Samurai Fiction was released in 1998 and marked the directorial debut of Hiroyuki Nakano, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Hiroshi Saito. It predates his second feature, Tajomaru: Avenging Blade, by eleven years. The cast includes Mitsuru Fukikoshi as Heishiro, Tomoyasu Hotei as the thief Rannosuke Kazamatsuri, Morio Kazama, Tamaki Ogawa, Mari Natsuki and Taketoshi Naitō, among twenty credited performers.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.2 from around 2,800 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.7 from a much smaller base of 61 votes. The wider and larger sample on IMDb indicates a fairly favorable response, and the gap between the two figures reflects how limited the TMDB voting is rather than a sharp division of opinion.