- Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
- Written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
- Stars Koichi Yamadara, Emi Shinohara, Takeshi Aono
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwc7wNCvDs4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s an animated movie with great detailed work. It’s not a horror movie in the classic sense, but there are lots of demons and monsters to deal with. It’s an epic battle of good vs. evil mixing martial arts and swordplay with magic and superpowers.
Synopsis
A man, Jubei, tries to cross a bridge but is attacked by robbers. He was paid only 20 pieces of gold to retrieve a special sword given by the Shogun. He wipes them out.
Most of the townspeople from Shimoda village are dead from the plague. An evil force has come. The government blockades the village to prevent the spread.
Hanza reports to the Chamberlain about seeing strangers in that village last night. He is ordered to investigate. Kagero, the Chamberlain’s poison-taster, wants to go along. The men talk about Kagero’s destiny. Many of the men are killed by some kind of electricity-wielding demon and a man made of stone. The stone man tears Hanza’s arms off and drinks his blood.
The stone man takes Kagero prisoner. He starts to rape her. Jubei is there and interrupts. Jubei puts the man’s eye out, and he and Kagero escape. Lord Gemma orders the stone man and his partner not to pursue.
Kagero reports to the Chamberlain about what happened; twenty men died. Meanwhile, the stone man finds and beats up Jubei. Jubei slashes the stone man with his sword, and he shatters. An old man explains that he was one of the eight Devils of Kimon, but Jubei didn’t kill him alone.
Yurimaru is the stone man’s electrical partner, and he’s one of those demons as well. He reports to Lord Gemma that the stone man was killed.
Jubei runs into a tattooed woman. Her snake tattoos start to move, and the snakes attack him. She escapes, but the old man says he’s helped Jubei again. The eight devils are a ninja clan of the dark, and they want to overthrow the government. The old man wants to hire Jubei to fight them, but Jubei declines the offer. The old man, Dakuan, points out that the snake-woman poisoned Jubei and he’ll die by tomorrow without the antidote.
The snake woman reports her failure to Yurimaro. Dakuan explains to Jubei that Lord Gemma, a known traitor, is now the head of the Kimon clan. Shijima, a shadow demon, attacks Dakuan, but the old man escapes. Meanwhile, Jubei is attacked by the snake woman again, but Kagero intervenes; she’s immune to poisons. Turns out, Kagero will poison any man she sleeps with; that’s what actually killed the stone man earlier, not simply Jubei’s sword. Before the snake woman can be interrogated, she is electrocuted by Yurimaru’s hidden wire.
They soon discover that there was no plague; the villagers were either poisoned or executed. The demon-master of bees attacks next with his swarms. Kagero shoots poison rose petals at them while Jubei goes after the bee’s master. Jubei learns that Gemma has the secret of reincarnation; any part of his body can regenerate.
The demon-zombie-master sends the animated corpse of Hanza against them, and he explodes, nearly killing Kagero and Jubei. The blind swordmaster demon fights Jubei one on one. Jubei and Kagero talk about getting romantic, but they can’t because the touch of her skin is poisonous.
The demon’s plan seems to center on stealing some cargo from a ship that wrecked near the “infected” village a few days ago. Dakuan explains that the cargo is gold produced from the secret mine. The gold was headed to the Shogun of the Dark, and he needs it to topple the government and plunge the country into a civil war. The shadow demon attacks, turning into dozens og hologram-versions of himself. Kagero sends a message to the Chamberlain about the gold shipments. Then she confronts Dakuan about the antidote to Jubei’s poison.
The shadow demon kidnaps Kagero and Jubei goes after her. Unfortunately, he’s getting weaker from the poison and can’t fight. The old man says that if Jubei makes love to Kahero, that her poison will kill his poison, and that’s the only cure for him. He declines her offer out of respect for her.
Jubei plans to sink the ship full of gold while Dakuan makes a distraction. Just then, the Chamberlain and his men arrive. The real Chamberlain has been dead for two days; this is Lord Gemma in disguise; he stabs Kagero in the back and Jubei watches. Jubei makes a lot of their blood splatter everywhere.
Yurimaru begs Gemma to be allowed to kill Jubei. He nearly kills Jubei, but he’s betrayed and killed by the zombie-controlling-demon.
Kageru dies, but Jubei kisses her anyway. Now, Jubei’s angry and has an incentive to finally do something. He goes out to the ship and climbs aboard. Meanwhile, Gemma turns against the Shogun of the Dark; he wants the gold for himself and the demons of Kimon.
Down in the cargo hold, Dakuan has to fight the demon zombie-controller. She explodes dramatically and damages the ship in the process. As the ship burns, Jubei finally meets Gemma, and they do battle. Jubei was the one who decapitated Gemma the first time. Jubei cuts off Gemma’s arm, but Gemma just re-attaches it. Gemma, who can never die, gets encased in molten gold… forever.
Dakuen explains that kissing Kagero cured Jubei of the poison, and he’s free to go now. Jubei walks off into the fog…
Commentary
There’s lots of demons and monsters and epic ninja fighting. There’s stuff about politics and gold mines and reincarnation and curses. There’s a lot of backstory going on behind all the ninja fighting. The team of evil demons could match any superhero group with their distinct styles and powers although they do die awfully easily.