The chapter, "Speed and Movement in Chambara: Stylistic Conventions," from Isolde Standish's book, A New History of Japanese Cinema, examines the use and function of speed in its application to the human body and filming technique. Standish argues that Japanese film uses speed as a "mimetic response to the mechanical ordering of temporality" (Standish, 97). In contrast to Western directors, who frequently used the convention to reflect mechanized industry's effect on the human timetable, Japanese films glorify the process through "spectacle and display" (Standish, 97). Standish grounds her polemic with examples from Japanese theater and early Japanese cinema.
            The section attributes Japanese cinema's emphasis on speed to two sources: reactionary sentiment to a rigidly stratified society and the shinkokugeki theater movement. Standish ascribes chambara's (sword-play film) appeal to its visceral effects. The physical freedom of the chambara's characters "provided subjective moments of corporeal intensity and fantasy" (Standish, 99). Images of movement fascinated young Japanese men, who felt constricted by society. The shinkokugeki theater movement of the early 1920s introduced the display of realistic sword fighting scenes on stage. The new style was much more exciting than the detached, suggestive style of kubuki theater. Japanese filmmakers combined real sword fights with filming techniques like long tracking shots and crosscuts over different parallel lines of action to accentuate on screen movement.

Standish's chapter enumerates the different tropes of the chambara. Using her criteria, one can evaluate the effect of Shogun Assassin's (1980) use of speed, movement, and editing. Ogami Itto's fencing skills seem inhuman: his blade often moves too fast for the eye to see. Furthermore, Shogun Assassin uses crosscuts in every fight scene. The shots, which shift between Ogami and his opponents, maintain focus on all characters involved without sacrificing tension. Finally, Shogun Assassin culminates with a tachimawari, or a "climactic sword-fight scene" (Standish, 98). Standish claims that the tachimawari is the hallmark of the chambara film, as it features the most pace and movement.

            First published in 1900, Inazo Nitobe’s book, Bushido: The Soul of Japan, attempts to justify the idiosyncrasies of Japanese culture and history to the Western world. Chapter twelve, entitled “The Institutions of Suicide and Redress,” examines the bewildering Japanese practices of ritual suicide and vengeance. Using biblical citations and examples in Classical mythology, Nitobe argues that self-immolation has a rich history in Western culture. By appealing to the Western ideal of balanced justice, Nitobe contends that Western society embraces vengeance too (when exacted properly).

            For the samurai, seppuku, or ritual disembowelment was the preferred method of suicide. Dating back to the turn of the millennia, seppuku had numerous functions. Samurai used seppuku to set an example for other samurai, as a form of protest, or as a form of punishment. Most significantly, however, seppuku served as a form of atonement. The ceremony allowed a shamed samurai to die with honor. Nitobe however cautions, “The glorification seppuku offered, naturally enough, no small temptation to its unwarranted committal” (Nitobe, 85). Thus, rules and circumstances dictated when seppuku was appropriate. Nitobe condemns those that disemboweled themselves purely for the pursuit of honor.

Nitobe likens revenge to a mathematical equation, “until both terms of the equation are satisfied, we cannot get over the sense of something left undone” (Nitobe, 88). It is an “ethical court of equity, where people could take cases not to be judged in accordance with ordinary law” (Nitobe, 88). Vengeance also had its regulations. It was only justified when undertaken at the behest of one’s superiors. Consequently, a samurai should not pursue revenge against those who wronged him personally.

            As Shogun Assassin (1980) is a story of revenge, Nitobe’s study obviously applies. Itto Ogami’s objective in the film is to exact vengeance on the Shogun, who had his wife and child assassinated. Nitobe’s code both supports and rebukes Ogami’s actions. While Nitobe states specifically, “One’s own wrongs, including injuries done to wife and children, were to be born and forgiven,” he also notes the importance of balanced justice. It is unclear whether Nitobe would condone Ogami’s actions, but the fact that there is room for discourse on the subject marks Shogun Assassin as a jidai-geki.