The Betrayal (Limited Edition) [Blu-ray]

The Betrayal Blu-ray presents a stark and uncompromising jidaigeki from director Tokuzo Tanaka, featuring one of Raizo Ichikawa’s most powerful performances. First released in 1966, the film stands as a bleak meditation on honour, loyalty, and betrayal, aligned with the darker currents of post-war samurai cinema.

An honourable samurai accepts exile to protect his clan after taking responsibility for a murder committed by another. Promised a safe return after one year, he instead finds himself abandoned and hunted by the very men he sought to protect. As the code of bushido collapses around him, his path narrows to two brutal choices: vengeance or death.

Shot in striking black-and-white widescreen, The Betrayal builds inexorably toward one of the most ferocious and emotionally devastating finales in the genre. Directed by a former assistant to Akira Kurosawa, the film shares thematic ground with Harakiri and Sword of Doom, stripping the samurai myth of romanticism to expose the cruelty beneath its rigid ideals. Radiance presents the film on Blu-ray for the first time, newly restored and accompanied by a suite of scholarly extras.

directed by: tokuzo tanaka
starring: raizo ichikawa, kaoru yachigusa, shiho fujimura
1966 / 87 min

Language: Japanese
Audio: Mono
Discs: 1