Koichi Sakamoto’s Latest Period Film Delivers Killer Swordplay Thrills In The Official Trailer

Japanese cinema is still a hurdle for me most days since I’m neither fluent nor literate, but it helps to be able to translate things for these kinds of discoveries. Such is the case with 『漆黒天 -終の語り-』, or as Google Translate notes: Raven Story: The End Of The Story, rejoining famed Toku action Koichi Sakamoto with none other than actor Hirofumi Araki following their previous work together on Sakamoto’s live-action Bungo Stray Dogs: Beast movie back in January.

The film is a continuation of a franchise between live stage shows and films, with Hidenori Ishida’s Gozen: The Sword Of Pure Romance kicking off the feature film series in 2019, and Takayuki Shibasaki’s Grim Reaper Case Book following suit a year later. This one sees Araki starring as a lone, nameless swordsman who journeys into Edo and finds himself squaring off with scores of thugs after rescuing a woman.

Sakamoto, best known for aiding in generating fandom in the west for the Kamen Rider, Ultraman and Super Sentai franchises and a number of film titles also including Broken Path, Drive, Girl’s Blood, Kiri and Hurricane Polymar to name a few, directs from a script by stage writer Kenichi Suemitsu. The cast also lists Arisa Komiya, Ryo Matsuda, Reo Nagatsuma, Shohei Hashimoto, Hiroya Matsumoto, Fujiko Kojima, Mizuki Umetsu, Yuta Ozawa, Hiroki Suzuki, Mitsuru Karahashi and Takashi Ukaji for the film’s June 24 release from Toei.

Check out the trailer above and cast visuals and poster below.