Unleashed from bondage after five long years, the rest of the planet finally has access to director Gakuryu Ishii’s Japanese cult flick Punk Samurai. Kankuro Kudo adapted the screenplay from Kou Machida’s reportedly unfilmable novel Punk Samurai Slash Back. Rogue Ronin Junoshin Kake (Go Ayano) shows his prowess as a warrior by slaying an old man out begging with this blind daughter. He claims to the ruling Black Wave Clan that the slain man was a member of the forbidden Belly Shaker cult, a banned religion whose followers believe the world is lodged inside the bowels of a giant intergalactic worm. It is soon proved that the old man wasn’t part of anything and that the cult has been out of commission for some time.
Instead of being hired, Kake finds he has been sentenced to death. In order to save his hide, he agrees to participate in a secret plot to revive the Belly Shaker cult in order to allow a rival law and order faction to gain political power. He recruits Chayama Hanro (Tadanobu Asano), a heavily tattooed Belly Shaker fanatic, along with true believer Ron (Keiko Kitagawa) to start recruiting for a revived version of the cult. However, the pop-up cult turns out to be incredibly popular, and soon the Black Wave Clan finds themselves overwhelmed with Belly Shakers. What the hell is Kake going to do now?
So the burning question on the tips of everyone’s steel-toed boots is just how punk is Punk Samurai? It is set in the Edo period of Ancient Japan, which is even back before The Lurkers released Fulham Fallout. So the samurai cannot literally be punk as all sorts of s**t hadn’t been invented yet. Punk isn’t even mentioned until the very final scene, where Ayano declares he is the “punk samurai” and giant stone letters spelling that in Japanese fall from the sky. Then Sex Pistols “Anarchy in the U.K.” is played in its entirety over the end credits over footage of puppets at a cult rally. It is simple, blunt, and works beautifully.
“…to save his hide, he agrees to participate in a secret plot to revive the Belly Shaker cult…”
I was confounded at first, but those puppets wiggling over Johnny Rotten’s howling is hypnotic. It will lay recollection eggs in your brain that will hatch repeatedly. While cerebral puppetry infestation may sound unusual, my mornings have never been brighter. Some more of the punk to be found in Punk Samurai in the attitude of Ayano’s surly ronin. In a world filled with rituals and protocol, the hero’s curled upper lip at commands might as well have a safety pin in it. His matter-of-fact attitude toward the rapidly escalating cult craze is unshockable, with an existentialist acceptance of encroaching doom, which is punk as f**k.
Also, punk as f**k is all the movie sections devoted to the Belly Shaker cult. You will find wonders previously unimagined onscreen, laced with hallucinogenic animation and savage puppetry. You can feel the air shimmering around the fun that sparkles up when it gets down and culty. The artistic decision to use an old-time wooden puppet to represent the cult founder is brilliant in its insanity. The cosmic worm intestinal tract animation explaining the cult’s philosophy is delicious past the point of reason. The Zaniness of the Belly Shakers is the driving reason Punk Samurai is finally being seen outside of Japan since its original release in 2018. However, hold on to your hollandaise because the sequences between the fun ones are borderline excruciating.
The interactions outside of cult business employ broad physical comedic exaggerations similar to 60s beach party movies. Any humor evaporates in the air during these scenes before making it to the screen. These parts of the movie are painful, and whatever over-the-counter painkillers are available should be smoked during these stretches. But is it f*****g worth it? Yes, it is! There are enough hardcore diamonds in all that spiral-sliced ham rough to satisfy the adventurous viewers of weird cinema. Also, how fun is it that a cult movie is also about a cult? Punk Samurai is the kind of international oddity whose unearthing keeps the horizon gleaming with weird promise.
