Director: Hideo Gosha

Hideo Gosha came from television and made samurai films that concentrate on the ronin and the peasant instead of the lord. Three Outlaw Samurai began as a television series and the feature is a prequel to it.

Sword of the Beast and Goyokin continue the interest in men who have broken with their clan and have nowhere to go. The fights are shorter and uglier than in the more famous Kurosawa pictures, closer to a brawl.

His work is less internationally known than it should be and has been steadily rediscovered through home video restoration.