Saw Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple, sequel to "Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto". We now find the protagonist, Musashi, a great warrior. He's very skilled but, to ascend higher up the hierarchy of needs, he must develop his humanity. He has a reputation of vicious ruthlessness. To help him master his emotions, he encounters a courtesan and two female characters from the previous films. All of this is kind of set-dressing for the big fight scenes.
The fight scenes are soul of this film. We open with one and close with another. Character progression is shown when, in the second big fight, Musashi uses his wits to overcome his enemy and, ultimately, embraces compassion. The rest of the film is neat and complex, but I feel the fights are the real interest of the filmmakers.
There's also some weirdness with the courtesan. She lives in some compound surrounded by creepy identical little girls in red kimonos who speak in a mannered, falsetto voice, and robotically move about the place. They feel like they're form another, much stranger film and they've somehow broken into this one.
There's also a young samurai warrior who shows up. He spends most of his time bemusedly observing fights and making arch comments. In this way he acts as a sort of Greek chorus, pointing out the important bits and dropping plot when needed. Because he's so arch and knowledgeable, I expect he'll also inevitably be the final boss fight for our hero to become a true man/warrior/cool guy.
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