The Invisible Swordsman Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.0

The Invisible Swordsman Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 20, 2025

Lovers of Greek myth may recall that it's the River Styx which served as a dividing line between the living and the dead, and rather interestingly Buddhism has its own version of this waterway, also coincidentally beginning with an "s", the Sanzu River. The Sanzu River plays its own kind of pivotal "role" in The Invisible Swordsman, at least once a kind of hapless schlub and would be samurai named Sanshiro Yuzuki (Osamu Saka) stumbles upon in it the aftermath of his famous samurai father's murder. It might be salient to suggest that Sanshiro might have been played by a "milquetoast" type like Bob Hope or Danny Kaye had this been a 1940s special effects comedy coming out of Hollywood, but the upshot is this stumbling, bumbling fool is granted some "covert" information from the beyond that allows him to become temporarily invisible, leading to his ability to both investigate his father's murder and maybe finally develop his own "particular set of skills".

The problem with being that aforementioned special effects comedy is that in this particular instance due at least evidently in part to severe budgetary restrictions faced by Daiei at the time of this film's production, this is not exactly a VFX extravaganza, and in fact huge swaths of the film, including key "special effects" moments, play out in near darkness, kind of defeating at least part of the purpose. Still, there's an agreeably genial mood to The Invisible Swordsman, and while not perhaps laugh out loud hilarious, it offers a few smiles along the way as Sanshiro gets to the bottom of a frankly not very compelling mystery.

The Invisible Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Invisible Swordsman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following minimal information on the presentation:

The Invisible Swordsman is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 [sic] with mono audio. The high definition master was provided by Kadokawa.

I've gone on record as not always completely liking these "pre-delivered" masters that Arrow and Radiance can offer, especially when no further tweaking is done by the label, which seems to be the case here. While some elements of the actual look of this piece are actually addressed in the supplements (as alluded to above vis a vis the financial straits Daiei was evidently experiencing), the transfer itself has a rather oddly variant color timing in addition to the overwhelming darkness. At times things can look rather brown, while at other times they veer noticeably toward yellow, and several of the scenes predominated by darker tones can show either slightly milky or purplish overlays on "blacks". The best moments here are frankly somewhat brief brightly lit outdoor scenes, where suddenly the palette pops appealingly and detail levels improve at least marginally. Grain is quite heavy and be mottled looking.

The Invisible Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Invisible Swordsman features LPCM Mono in the original Japanese. Things can be just a bit bright on the high end with some evident clipping during some of the more gonzo score moments (as in a completely bizarre opening song which sounds like it was sung by children). During the few moments where nothing much is happening, some clear pops and crackles can be heard, along with some baseline hiss. Otherwise, though, this track is really rather boisterous, with the consistently "turned up to 11" hyperbolic dialogue delivered clearly and cleanly. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Invisible Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary from author and Asian culture expert Jonathan Clements


• The Invisible People (HD; 15:00) is another enjoyable overview by Kim Newman, here concentrating on invisibility in film, myth and fiction.


• Phantom Fighter (HD; 26:36) is an interview with Jasper Sharp looking at the history of special effects in Daiei films.


• Image Gallery (HD)

Arrow's insert booklet contains an interesting essay by Zack Davisson, along with the usual cast and crew and technical information. The keepcase insert is reversible. Packaging features a slipcover.

The Invisible Swordsman Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Invisible Swordsman seems to be rather well liked by the experts Arrow has aggregated for the excellent supplements included with this release, and it's not hard to see why, though that said, this is probably best approached as an easily enjoyable but midlevel fantasy comedy and not some undiscovered masterpiece. Both video and audio are certainly serviceable but could arguably have been improved, but it may be those aforementioned supplements that deserve the most attention from those considering making a purchase.