Praised by Japanese film critics and much admired by his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, Tomu Uchida somehow remains little-known in the West. His 1955 masterpiece BLOODY SPEAR AT MT. FUJI is an excellent entry point for the newcomer.
Set during the Edo period, BLOODY SPEAR is a tragicomic road movie following a samurai, his two servants and the various people they meet on their journey, including a policeman in pursuit of a thief, a young child and a woman who is to be sold into prostitution.