Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
The career of the director of this film, Tomu Uchida, was in a very serious trouble at the time he made it. One of the most prominent Japanese filmmakers of the prewar period, Uchida, after failing to set up his own production company in the early 1940s, went to work for the Manchukuo Film Association in wartime occupied Manchuria, planning a film project that was never realized. After the war, he chose to remain for many years in China rather than return to Japan, apparently hoping in vain to make a film there. Thus, he did not return to Japan until late 1953, eight years after the end of the war and more than a decade after the release of his most recent film. However, his filmmaking friends from prewar days rallied round to help him return to the Japanese film industry. Uchida signed a contract with a new film studio, Toei, and was given this film as his first project, though it had originally been intended for Uchida's old friend to direct. (Shimizu, along with and , were officially credited as "advisors to the production.") His comeback film turned out to be a big critical and commercial hit, and Uchida's postwar career was successfully launched.,Near the end of the movie, a barrel of some liquid was pierced by a spear. The barrel keeps spilling liquid for several minutes, but does not have enough volume to hold that much liquid.,Remake of Dochu hiki (1927),I find that many films either focus on story so much that they lack meaning or they go to the opposite extreme and focus so narrowly on a message that they fail as stories. Thus it is with great pleasure that I viewed a film that refreshingly melds narrative with meaning in a fashion that works so well it seems almost effortless.

Tomu Uchida's A Bloody Spear at Mt. Fuji is the story of an unassuming samurai who is more interested in a person's actions than his social standing. In spite of the rigid class divide that exists between himself and his servants he tends to treat them as his equals even when they themselves feel that they are inferior to him. The film features remarkable subplots that add scope and depth to the social criticism offered by the main plot. Among these is the story of a male orphan who idolizes the samurai's spear bearer and a young woman who is sold into prostitution because her family is too poor to support her.

The style of the film is quite unique. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie switch from one a light comedic tone to a tragic one so effectively. While this handles some of the same themes covered by directors like Mizoguchi and Naruse it does so without ever seeming overbearing or ponderous.

This film also boasts one of the best endings I've ever seen. Brilliant end to a brilliant film.,