Alternate Best Actor 1968: Tatsuya Nakadai in Kill!

Tatsuya Nakadai did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Genta in Kill!

Kill! is essentially Kihachi Okamoto’s version of Sanjuro, though in this version two strangers get involved in a clan conflict over the corrupt and non-corrupt forces. 

We sadly finally lost the great Tatsuya Nakadai which is one of the great discoveries for me from this endeavor. Such a multi-fact talent, and here’s another one of his great talents as essentially Nakadai gets to take on the opposite of his parts against Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo and Sanjuro, where he played the chief villain each time, here he plays the hero who happens upon the situation. What’s wonderful is Nakadai’s take on the hero is completely his own and not for a second do you see him trying to replicate Mifune’s specific energy. Rather Nakadai brilliantly comes at things his own way, even the presentation of Genta where Nakadai very much plays into the idea of why everyone he’s around would falsely believe his Genta to be just a drifter of no note. As Nakadai has this casual energy that is just amazing here as every look from him is wonderful in creating truly the sense of a man just going along with life seemingly at this point. Offering a particularly enjoyable contrast to Hanji (Etsushi Takahashi), a peasant who wants to become a samurai who is almost hyperactive in his endeavor, Nakadai brings this passive energy, that is so remarkable because he is wholly charismatic in this totally unexpected casual demeanor. 

Nakadai is able to accentuate this ease of his presence where he brings the audience specifically into his sense of the situation where even as we see far more dramatic people going around as they find a small group in a clan is trying to weed out the larger scale corruption but the odds are against them, Nakadai brings an innate intelligence where every glance from him speaks so much into Genta calculating so much even as everyone either dismisses him or considers him of dangerous only in the sense of being a potential spy. Nakadai’s way of delivering every line of Genta basically allows others to think whatever they want as a “why not” confidence of someone who knows he’s got more than a hand up on everyone however entirely in his own way. Nakadai’s performance is a combination between being the hero and being hilarious however by playing the hero in such a path of least resistance sort of fashion. Where Nakadai brings the brilliance of the man though as someone who doesn’t want to force, making it so he does everything his own, rather amusing fashion. Something shown in the earliest fight scene where he’s tied up and maneuvers around within the action, where just every glance and even his physical way of walking about manages to be very funny, while also emphasizing the intelligence of the character. Particularly his pitch perfect exasperation when he sees the good members of the clan make a bad decision. 

Nakadai’s Genta acts in his own way like the samurai of Sanjuro, but again his way of directives is quite different, because the expectations of others is that he is this vagrant. So what we get instead is Nakadai’s deliveries which are all wonderful where he convinces people to do the right thing not through demand, but this very specific charisma of someone who seems to know exactly what everyone needs to do, though not for any particular reason. Nakadai lets us in on the fun which is particularly special where we get the moments where he considers certain options such as knowing there is a woman the good men might come to blows over and finds out that she’s heading to the men. Nakadai’s great in the way he speaks first with certainty but then when he hears the bad news, his immediate switch to a growing concern as he unravels more of the situation makes it so we are also benefiting from this knowledge that comes so easy to him. So easy to him that even when he’s surviving attacks from a semi-apologetic Hanji, Nakadai movements are so great as he manages to make it all look easy while also weirdly stumbling, as he is able to convincingly be this “accidental” expert in every quality. I especially love how even when his semi-friend is trying to kill him, Nakadai doesn’t react at being upset, rather it is with this knowing manner of someone using it to teach a lesson, not as a punishment but as a way to genuinely help Hanji out with his much sloppier path. 

We eventually do have moments where Genta is pushed into a corner and is forced to show his hand a bit. In those moments, Nakadai essentially becomes the man just simply cutting cake when using his sword and shows how naturally that Genta is simply beyond everyone in his skill even pressed to show off. His manner showing that his heartbeat maybe raises from below average to just average in these moments, as again Nakadai’s energy level here is so great in just how atypical yet convincing it is as such an atypical hero. We do get a key moment where we find out Genta’s primary motivation, where Genta was tired of the samurai life and particularly his own failure to weed out corruption in his own clan. Nakadai’s great in the scene because of how little he puts on it. Instead every word is simply the truth from his mouth, where there is a quiet underlying emotion of the sense of loss and even more so the strict imperative to do the right thing from now albeit in his own particular way. A way that gets more complicated when he gets caught and beaten for his efforts at a certain point, though saved by Hanji. I love it though when the barely received Genta comes up with the plan with Hanji and the good members of the clan, which includes Genta casually stating he will take down the lead villain of the clan, who also just happens to be the best swordsman of the entire clan. Nakadai’s performance again shows strength in ease, as even as he’s not trying to sell it, there is a strange even more powerful confidence in the ease of his conviction, as the essentially physically beaten down man says he’ll be the strongest man with the ease of man saying what he’ll have for lunch. Leading to a most unorthodox final battle where Genta utilizes the smallness of a room to disable his opponents use of a sword and commandeers a candle stick. Nakadai even in performing this action scene is great because again he manages this weird yet ideal combination between sloppiness and precision. Where obviously Genta knows exactly what he’s doing yet does it in a way where only he knows this, and Nakadai makes this all so effortlessly convincing while being comedic while never being a joke. Honestly Nakadai’s work here is so particular in its success because he is a total badass while being quite silly and what a natural combination he makes it. It is however merely another grand entertaining testament to the vast talents of the man who could be the most insidious of villains, or just an absolute delight of a hero as he is here.