"His heart craves vengeance... His sword demands blood!" exclaims the packaging to Legend of the Devil, a bizarre little Japanese samurai flick that's made its way to our shores courtesy of the folks at Central Park Media. I wouldn't be surprised if most, after examining the packaging, would be lead to believe this to be some sort of Kill Bill / Lady Snowblood variation - I certainly anticipated such. However, one would be very wrong on this account; simply watching the film's opening few minutes will reveal beyond a doubt that, for better or for worse, Legend of the Devil is nothing if not original.

Things start out innocuously enough, opening in a crowded market square. Here we meet the rather androgynous master swordsman Shuranosuke Sakaki as he has his pocket crudely picked by a young woman. Obviously unhappy with this turn of events, he trails her into a nearby theater where a group of actresses is performing a strange lesbian tableau. Sakaki manages to get his wallet back, but before he can exact revenge on the thief, the entire town is upset by the arrival of a giant black sumo wrestler in a cape (?) who begins wreaking havoc on the town. It's at this point that the film begins pushing its weirdness level up into the stratosphere, and, rest assured, things won't get any more normal until long after the end credits have stopped rolling...

So where were we? Apparently, there's a giant black sumo wrestler rampaging through town, and, after much throwing of scared-looking extras, he eventually arrives (after night falls) at the residence of Lady Mayu. Luckily, Sakaki is around to save the day, effortlessly halving the 'monster' with his sword (I'm not sure why he didn't do this in town, but...). Sadly, however, as the 'monster' distracted the house's guards by attacking its front gates, a group of ninja managed to secretly kidnap the lovely Lady Mayu, so the onus of her rescue now falls upon Sakaki.

Since the clan that has kidnapped her wishes to ransom her for a sword, Sakaki brings this along on his rescue mission. The two parties eventually run into each other; however, as their trade-off is taking place, a third party intervenes and steals the sword. In the resultant melee, Sakaki and Mayu flee. Back at Mayu's estate, she explains to Sakaki that if it's discovered that her family has lost possession of the sword, her family will be disgraced. Taking pity on the poor girl, Sakaki again sets forth, this time on a quest to wrest the sword from the grips of the two opposing groups of thieves; discover why the hell they want it so much anyway; and, finally, return it safely to Lady Mayu so that she doesn't have to kill herself to avoid social disgrace.

Now, I must confess, toward the end, I've gotten a little vague in my synopsis. Why? Because the previous three paragraphs summarize not even a third of the events in the film, and if I were to try to relate everything, we'd be here all day. If ever there were a movie for the MTV generation, this is it. The plot barrels forward from situation to situation like a bullet train with a rocket strapped to it so fast, indeed, that if you were asked at any point during the movie what happened five minutes ago, it'd be safe to bet that you'd be extremely hard-pressed to remember it, much less connect it to the charactersâ current set of circumstances. The film is an orgy of double-crosses, random characters who may or may not have anything do to with the goings on as a whole, and myriad bizarre scenes that seem to exist for no other reason than to throw the audience off guard.

Indeed, the film is like a procession of bizarre occurrences and situations. In addition to the strange black sumo wrestler's appearance in the film's opening, mountains of additional strangeness are heaped on in the film's remaining 80 minutes. In one scene, a villain, angry about losing his honor by being beaten in battle by Sakaki, orders his arm cut off. This is promptly done, but he seems to feel no pain, and he actually ends up performing the rest of the scene while waving his severed limb around for emphasis. In another scene, Sakaki is attacked by a girl who claims he killed her father. After he convinces her that he's not the man she's looking for, she pleads with him to train her and he refuses, so she leaves. And, if I'm not mistaken, that's it; she never appears again and seems to serve no other function than to eat up a few minutes of running time. The same can be said about a hulking prisoner Sakaki meets during his initial rescue of Mayu; the two start to develop an on-again, off-again friendship, and then the prisoner gets killed, leading the audience to wonder what the point is of spending ten to twenty minutes of a movie getting to know a character when he's simply going to be randomly dispatched later on. Oh well...

Suffice it to say, we've really got ourselves a strange film here - one that, in the end, either doesn't make a lick of sense or is so complicated that trying to decipher the plot ends up being a job too forbidding to even consider undertaking. It's rarely clear whom people are or why they're doing what they're doing, so in most cases it's best to simply shrug and go along with things; after all, the film must know what it's doing, right?

Right. And never mind anyway. Legend of the Devil isn't a film about logic; it's a film about throwing absolutely everything possible at the proverbial wall in hope that some of it will stick. And on this level, almost in spite of itself, the movie does manage to work. I've heard it said that the greatest sin a film can commit is to be boring; if this is true, then Legend of the Devil qualifies as one of cinema's greatest masterpieces. You may be astounded, shocked, confused (very confused), perplexed, or perhaps even annoyed, but the last thing you will be is bored - trust me. It's this constant, almost deranged obsession with remaining involving at absolutely all costs that makes Legend an entertaining watch despite all odds. Even with its trite story; goofy effects; maddeningly hyperbolic pacing; and almost complete lack of characterization and, yes, even coherence, I found myself liking Legend, and if that's not an achievement that deserves a little credit, then I don't know what is.

On that note, I guess I have to commend (however dubiously) the purveyors of this gourmet cinematic slop, Central Park Media, as they've seen fit to give it some surprisingly good treatment. The film's wonderful transfer certainly helps make it a more entertaining ride, and I found it to be quite a surprise as the images on the box looked a little dull, leading me to assume the film itself would be. Not so, I found. The transfer is clear and bright with all of its candy-colored visuals blazing luminously, and there's surprisingly little grain or scratching. Audio, while clear, isn't quite as exciting; it's simply a stereo mix with English and Japanese language options. Like all Central Park releases, the English track is extremely goofy-sounding, and, like I usually do, I'd once again advise sticking with the Japanese-language version, which sounds appropriate and pleasant. This track's accompanying subs, which are removable and easy-to-read, are well-written, and, in a DVD first (at least as far as I've seen), even go so far as to include occasional explanatory notes for allusions in the dialogue that might not be familiar to western viewers.

As for extras, things don't fare nearly as well: all we receive is the film's trailer and a gallery of other trailers for Asia Pulp Cinema releases. Since this seems to be pretty standard practice on most CPM packages, I wasn't really upset or surprised, but I couldn't help but think that at least Beautiful Target gave us that cute little quiz... For the record, the supplemental trailers are for Big Boobs Buster, The Ninja Dragon, Seduce and Swindle, The Dimension Travelers, and The Bondage Master (if you haven't already, I highly recommend you read Carl's very entertaining Bondage Master review).

While I can't recommend you go running off to buy it, Legend of the Devil (I'm still mystified as to even the title's significance, by the way) is nevertheless worth at least one viewing if you're looking for some truly bizarre Asian goofiness. While the back of the packaging's promises of 'violence and brief nudity' don't really amount to much (there are only a couple limb-loppings - most deaths are 'dry' and I couldn't find any nudity), there is nevertheless more than enough strangeness here to keep you entertained for at least one showing. Just remember not to try sorting out the plot and you should be in for an evening of sublime strangeness.

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