(Also known as Samurai Goldseekers.) Like Gosha's Goyokin (see August 27), Sword of the Beast takes place in the waning years of the Tokugawa period. Traditional samurai values are being displaced by a new economic ethos, and clans are involved in illegal acquisition of Shogunate gold. Gennosuke (Makijiro Hira) is a darkly divided Gosha hero, priding himself on his rise to samurai rank, yet cynically aware of the rupture in feudal values and the hypocrisy of the times. Once a devoted clansman, now Gennosuke is one more master swordsman on the run, having rashly killed a faithless clan minister. His flight leads him to the gold country-Shogunate country-where Yamane (Go Kato) and his wife Taka (Shima Iwashita) live to hoard gold for their clan, guarding against bandits and Shogunate spies at every turn. In waking the naive Yamane to his clan's treachery, Gennosuke awakens himself to his own disillusionment. He can no longer die like a samurai, but he will not live as a beast. Gosha brilliantly utilizes his cinemascope screen to bring the past into play in the present, a visualization, in action, of Gennosuke's internal state.