PROFESSIONAL KILLERS (1973)

This feels like a TV pilot but it's actually a feature film based on a concurrent television series, yet it's so well done that someone who's unfamiliar with the show and its characters can drop in and easily be brought up to speed. The premise is great: respected merchant Otowaya Hanyemon (So Yamamura) runs an assassination bureau in Edo with bachelor acupuncturist Dr. Baian Fujieda (Jirô Tamiya) and ronin Sanai Nishimura (Kôji Takahashi), a family man whose legit front is a blade polishing/sharpening business. Their main stipulation is that they only eliminate individuals who are predatory and a detriment to society. What starts off as a simple job -- rubbing out the scheming second wife of a local wholesale candle merchant -- leads to the killers accepting several additional contracts, including a corrupt magistrate (Hideo Murata) who wants to hire Sanai as his deputy and a deceitful widow (Yôko Nogiwa) who might be Baian's long-lost sister. The female contracts usually go to Baian, since he's handsome and something of a lady-killer already; he attacks from behind with his needles, while Sanai prefers male victims he can challenge with his sword. I liked this so much I watched it twice in one week, and will definitely buy the two sequels, PROFESSIONAL KILLERS: ASSASSIN'S QUARRY (1973) and PROFESSIONAL KILLERS: ASSIGNMENT BY NIGHT (1974), as well as the complete TV series when/if they ever come out on Blu-ray or DVD.

DARKNESS IN EDO aka PROFESSIONAL KILLERS: ASSASSIN'S QUARRY

PROFESSIONAL KILLERS: ASSIGNMENT BY NIGHT