Japan Synopsis
獣の剣
Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal. There he joins up with a motley group who are illegally mining the shogun’s gold, and, with the aid of another swordsman, gets a chance not just at survival but to recover his name and honor.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Sword of the Beast. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Shochiku
Action + Drama in Japan
444 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Action and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Sword of the Beast itself).
The 1964–1966 Japan Window
Among 74 Japan films we catalog from this window, Sword of the Beast places #8 — near the top of its class.
The 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1960s in Japan, 202 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Sword of the Beast premiered alongside 21 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 21 other Japan films in 1965.
The 226th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
59 audience reviews — more than 67% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (67th percentile) outruns trending popularity (30th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Sword of the Beast, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- feudal japan · 26
- ronin · 18
- shogun · 8
- 19th century · 32
- gambling · 31
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,093 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (76th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.7 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Action productions specifically: #484 of 1,714 (top 28%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Shochiku |
| Runtime | 1h 25m |
| Release Date | September 18, 1965 |
| IMDb | tt0200768 |