Two strangers, one a disenchanted ex-samurai, the other a farmer who dreams of becoming one, meet on the road in a ghost town. They get caught up in the middle of an ambush, which is part of a feud between two local clans.There are a few laughs thrown in there for good measure, which really help move the story along. For my money, Tatsuya Nakadai (Genta) is the best of the Japanese actors. He's certainly my favorite anyway. He was great in Sword of Doom (also by Kihachi Okamoto) as the haunted anti-hero and was awesome in Yojimbo as Unosuke, the gunslinger. I think he's better than Toshiro Mifune. If I had to find something wrong with Okamoto's films, it would be that they tend to have so many different characters, that it can be hard to keep track of them all until you've seen it a time or two. A story that doesn't take itself too seriously but works well. Watch it!