Cool and quirky chanbara. Maybe it's too fast paced made the intrigue  and polemic a little hard to follow. it's not that complicated though, only again there this flow of narrative -to me- been sacrificed. Not help when many characters -which some supposedly intriguing, and they were-  also  became abruptly introduced, developed and resolved. i guess it's still fair on this kind of flick.
the fights,  humors, the absurd circumstances is strong  on this one. the points that remind me of the work of seijun suzuki. only talk kihachi okamoto , he has some social commentary implied, in this case ridicule obselete samurai code of duty to a complete laughing stock.