Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves
Nov 11th, 2006 by Ad Blankestijn
The first Japanese film I ever saw was Rashomon and since that momentous evening I have been hooked on samurai films (and Japanese film in general). This was about 20 years ago, at a time when it was still difficult to find Japanese films. The situation improved after I moved again to Japan in the late eighties - although the DVD did not exist yet, at least I could rent videos. I also used to scour the TV guide for occasional showings of samurai films on Japanese TV. Then the Laser Disc came and with it lots of chambara films, as the Zatoichi and Nemuri Kyoshiro series. In the late nineties, finally, the DVD took the world by storm and with it came the relatively large flow of films we now can choose from.
Compared to the past, we now live in heaven for the samurai fan! I gradually grew into this field of swashbuckling Ronin and stern Bushido (and there were such useful guides as Alain Silver’s The Samurai Film and the book by Donald Richie on Kurosawa), but if you are new to it, some more help may come in handy. It is here that Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves, The Samurai Film Handbook by Patrick Galloway proves its worth, although even as an “old hand” I greatly enjoyed it.
Galloway is an ardent fan of samurai flicks and his enthousiasm is quite infectious. He discusses 50 films (all available to would-be viewers, most of them even relatively easy) and also provides profiles for 10 directors and actors. In the introduction he gives the necessary cultural background about the samurai and the films that were made about them. His definition of the samurai film neglects Japanese intricacies such as the difference between jidaigeki (historical films) and chambara (swordfight films). In Galloway’s definition all films that have samurai and swordfights in it and that are set in the historical period until the start of the Meiji period (1868), are samurai films. A very practical definition with which I fully agree!
Galloway not only discusses classics as Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, but also delves into popular series as Zatoichi, Nemuri Kyoshiro, Miyamoto Musashi and Lone Wolf and Cub. Lady Snowblood is present as well. Sometimes he seeks the boundaries of the genre, as in Kwaidan (rather a horror film) or (on a different level) Daimajin, an old monster film about a giant samurai statue that comes to life. But he also discusses art films as Harakiri and gives a sympathetic account of Twilight Samurai.
Galloway writes in a light and humorous style that is a breeze to read. The book has been beautifully edited and illustrated and is fully up to the high standard we have gotten used to from Stone Bridge Press.
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Thanks for the heads-up! I had never heard of this book before.
As someone running an Akira Kurosawa website, I was wondering what your opinion is about how relevant the book would be for someone specifically interested in Kurosawa? What does the book have to offer for that part of the audience?
I was also wondering what the style of the book is actually like. You wrote that it is easy to read, and the publisher’s website describes it as a handbook giving “profiles” of films and directors. Does this mean that it is more of a reference guide than, say, an academic treatment of the samurai genre?
Just curious. :)
It is also interesting that they would use the word “stray dog” in the title, as it sounds like a reference to Kurosawa’s ‘Stray Dog’ which, of course, was not a samurai film at all (just like most of Kurosawa’s films actually weren’t).
Hello Vili,
I am afraid this book is not very relevant when you are specifically interested in Kurosawa. In my view, it has nothing new to offer in addition to what is written in the books on Kurosawa you already list up on your website.
As regards the samurai film, too, the book by Alain Silver I mention above delves deeper. Stray Dogs is not an academic treatment, but a popular introduction for the general public to the samurai film genre. It is a great guide when you are just starting on samurai films, but even when you have seen quite a lot of chambara flicks, as is my case, you still may find the odd film in it that you haven’t watched yet.
Finally the title - the author does not discuss his reasons for selecting this title, except the remark that the sixties when the samurai film was turned on its head were the pinnacle of the genre - it were the days of lonely, nihilistic samurai who indeed can be called “stray dogs” and “lone wolves.” I do not think there is a conscious reference to the film by Kurosawa!
Hi Ad, and thanks for your answers. It’s one less book for me to read, then!
I’ve been doing some browsing around your blog, and I must say there’s some pretty interesting stuff here.