Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight Blu-ray Review

Mondo Macabro

Blu-ray Release: July 8, 2025 (following an January 2025 limited edition 4K)

Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color

Audio: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono 

Subtitles: English

Run Time: 81:12

Director: Teruo Ishii

Master swordsman Shiro (Tetsuro Tanba), weary of the world of samurai honor and killing, attempts suicide, rather than finishing a fight. He is saved by the Bohachi clan, a gang of pimps who have forsaken all honor and whose cynicism outruns even his own. But, ultimately, he even tires of their nihilistic worldview, leading to a final showdown in the snow… (From Mondo Macabro’s official synopsis)

A truly innovative and unique filmmaker, Teruo ‘King of Cult’ Ishii’s prolific career encompassed almost 100 features, shorts, and television episodes, ranging from the children’s sci-fi serial Super Giant (Japanese: Sūpā Jaiantsu; aka: Starman and Spaceman, 1957-1959) to mainstream hit Abashiri Prison (1965), which inspired no fewer than 17 sequels. But his enduring legacy is a series of pinku eiga thrillers and ero guro shockers, including Shogun’s Joys of Torture (Japanese: Tokugawa onna keibatsu-shi, 1968) and its sequels, Orgies of Edo (1969), and vivid, freakshow genre mash-ups Horrors of Malformed Men (Japanese: Edogawa Rampo Zenshū: Kyoufu Kikei Ningen, 1969) and Blind Woman’s Curse (Japanese: Kaidan Nobori Ryū, 1970).

Based on a manga from Lone Wolf And Cub writer and artist team, Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima, Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight (Japanese: Poruno jidaigeki: Bōhachi bushidō, 1973) is a greatest hits sampling of Ishii’s strengths as an exploitation superstar. His films endure for their dynamic blend of ultra-transgressive subject matter and rich, stylistic creativity. Yes, Bohachi Bushido is brimming with borderline pornographic sex, grotesque torture spectacle, graphic bloodshed, and showstopping sequences of stoic samurai battling voluptuous, completely naked lady ninjas, but it’s also exhilaratingly shot and edited.

Susumu Saji’s script and Koike’s story provide a substantial foundation for Ishii’s wild visuals, anchoring them in a typically episodic, frothy, and intrigue-heavy jidaigeki narrative that is, unsurprisingly, thematically similar to Lone Wolf and Cub. Bohachi Bushido is almost a conventional samurai thriller, albeit one couched in over-the-top comic book action and the type of abstract, representational imagery seen in the decidedly unconventional Horrors of Malformed Men. The sex and violence enter into arthouse territory, highlighted by an outrageous series of climatic events, from an opium-addled orgy to an ethereal final battle, where white falling snow turns to red flakes of blood.

One year after its initial release, Bohachi Bushido was followed by a sequel, Bohachi Bushido: The Villain (Japanese: Bôhachi bushidô: Sa burai, 1974), directed by Toei yakuza regular Takashi Harada. For whatever reason, Tetsuro Tanba didn’t reprise his starring role and supporting player Goro Ibuki was moved into the lead as Kyushi-Issho. This is interesting, because, according to Ishii, Tanba (a big name whose career lasted another three decades) had personally secured the rights to the original script and affectionately pestered the director into helming it. Perhaps he had his fill of naked lady ninjas the first time around, if such a thing is even possible.

Bibliography:

• Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema by Jasper Sharp (FAB Press, 2008)

• Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film by Chris D. (IB Taurus, 2005)

Video

As far as I can tell, Bohachi Bushido never made it to VHS outside of Asia. Its first English-friendly DVD came in 2008 from Discotek Media, who put together a nice, extras-packed anamorphic presentation that is now out-of-print (don’t worry, the extras are preserved here). Mondo Macabro’s HD premiere was initially released earlier this year as a limited edition 4K UHD/BD combo pack. This review pertains to the 1080p, 2.35:1 standard edition Blu-ray, which is culled from the same original negative restoration as the 4K disc.

Ishii and cinematographer Jūhei Suzuki utilize a lot of shallow focus, diffusion, and smoke effects throughout the film, so the image is rarely super-sharp. Close-ups feature plenty of texture and complex wide-angle shots rarely exhibit any kind of compression artifacts. Grain levels aren’t noisy, but are a bit heathered, which is possibly the result of squeezing a 2160p master into 1080p. I’m not sure if the 4K version has HDR enhancement, but I could imagine that making a pretty big difference, too. Nearly the entire film has a cool quality that emphasizes blues and lavenders over truly neutral hues, but I noticed a couple of sequences where the palette briefly shifts warmer, maybe indicating that the complete cut might have been culled from a couple of sources.

Audio

Bohachi Bushido is presented in its original Japanese mono and uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio sound. In some ways, the track shows its age – the effects are canned and volume levels can be all over the place, and the louder dialogue has a hissy quality – but there’s surprisingly little distortion and quite a bit of dynamic range. Composer Hajime Kaburagi, who previously collaborated with Ishii on Horrors of Malformed Men and Blind Woman’s Curse, supplies a mixed genre score that includes traditional Asian and symphonic motifs alongside the type of rock and jazz Toei movies were known for at the time.

Extras

• Commentary with Tom Mes – The Midnight Eye magazine co-editor and author of Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike (FAB Press, 2006) explores the making of the film, Ishii’s work and style, the wider careers of the cast & crew, the history of Toei’s delinquent/porno/exploitation era, and the real-world historical contexts of the storyline.

• Shinya Tsukamoto on Director Teruo Ishii (17:44, HD) – The maverick director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) shares his experiences viewing Ishii’s films during his childhood, his favorite of the director’s films (with emphasis on Bohachi Bushido), and working with Ishii as a performer on Blind Beast vs. Dwarf (Japanese: Mōjū tai Issunbōshi, 2001), where he learned about the director’s technique.

• Trailer

• Discotek Media 2008 DVD archival extras:

  • Commentary with J-Taro Sugisaku and Takao Nakano – Sugisaku and Nakano, both pinky violence experts and cult directors in their own right, are moderated by musician/director/fashion designer Yoshiki Hayashi. This is more of a ‘buddies admiring a favorite film’ type of track, but also contains plenty of information.

  • Introducing the Commentators (0:42)

  • What Is Pinky Violence? (15:33, SD) – Sugisaku returns for a deeper look at the pinku eiga genre, its inception, and roots in other media.

The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.