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Ryunosuke Tsukue reminds me of No Country For Old Men’s Anton Chigurh — an amoral anthrophobe willing to do harm for fun and profit. There’s no rhyme or reason (though The Sword of Doom does hint at daddy issues). Anton’s coin tossing becomes Ryunosuke’s non-lethal-turned-lethal fencing duels, both serving to amuse. Even Ryunosuke’s dead-eyed stare echoes Anton’s — I wouldn’t be surprised if Javier Bardem found inspiration in the great Tatsuya Nakadai’s portrayal of unfeeling psychopathy.

A commenter in a Letterboxd review of The Sword of Doom has the most intriguing take on the Ryunosuke character which could also apply to Anton Chigurh:

❝ From a certain perspective, Ryunosuke might actually be the most moral of all the characters. In that, in being so unfeeling he ends up least hypocritical …  The Japanese title actually means Great Bodhisattva Pass and I think it’s significant in bringing up the film’s more religious, spiritual aspects. In a weird way Ryunosuke may be pure evil but he is pure, and thus becomes a karmic retribution machine for the universe. ❞

Tatsuya Nakadai is so good that I haven’t even mentioned that Toshiro Mifune is in this with one of the most bad-ass scenes of his career. And the ending is amazing and batshit crazy, and could reasonably be interpreted as being stuck in a purgatory of one’s own making.

https://memora8ilia.com/index.php/2022/05/21/ryunosuke-tsukue-reminds-me-of-no-country-for-old/