Great exercise in suspense. 

I kept waiting for the fake monks to disrobe into samurai gear, unsheathe swords and kick ass. But alas, the moment kept stretching, waiting, bluffing its way around military checkpoints, nimbly dancing through a curious code of psychological war games, threading the needle into a facade of honor and attack that never arrived. 

Props to Kurosawa for mastering the art of withholding so early in his career. Props also for taking an otherwise static stage play (adapted from traditional Noh drama and Kabuki theater) and keeping the camera positioned in interesting ways. I don't have much to say about this film. It's pretty short, almost too short to be counted as an official feature in Kurosawa's filmography. 

Strongest feature is by far the unspoken code of frenetic foreplay which controls the interplay between the characters as they move through the sun-trickled forest, arrive at a life-or-death checkpoint, and lead the viewer to wonder: Will they escape? What will happen next? I was on the edge of my seat nearly the entire runtime.

Kurosawa Ranked