Dokufu oden kubikiri asa is known in English by many titles—officially it’s aka Poisonous Oden and Decapitator Asa or Samurai Executioner. But in our efforts to locate it we discovered it’s known online also as Decapitation of an Evil Woman and Vamp and Samurai. Do we even need to tell you about this one, considering how much info is given away by the titles?
A country girl played by Terumi Azuma goads a country boy into theivery and they and two partners quickly become notorious bandits hunted by the authorities. The story is derived from the real-life Oden Takahashi, who in 1879 became the last woman executed by decapitation in Japan. Despite this inspiration, much of the movie is played for laughs, with quite a bit of slapsticking, bungling, and yelling. Of course, it has to take a serious turn eventually, and indeed all four gang members soon become seasoned killers—just in time to start being whittled down by those annoyingly persistent authorities.
We were surprised by the comedic tone saturating much of the film, but since Japanese audiences already knew the story of Oden Takahashi, maybe some foolishness was needed to keep them interested. We could have done without it, but the movie is still pretty good, and at sixty-one minutes you don’t lose too much life to it. The poster above is exceedingly rare, never before seen online we’re pretty sure. The one below, painted by Goseki Kojima, is more common, and very nice. Dokufu oden kubikiri asa premiered in Japan today in 1977.
