So yesterday while waiting on our new air conditioner / furnace to be installed, I stumbled upon the Akira Kurosawa movie "The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail" on hulu plus. It is only an hour long, and based on a kabuki (and noh) play, it is brilliant. Sure there is no action and no deaths, but I loved it, and it has the best representation of Banishing Spirits (turn undead) for Ruins & Ronin...The plot has a group of nobles playing the part of itinerant priests trying to get past a roadblock, and the one monk in the group takes the part of the head priest and delivers this line of dialogue to the Samurai guarding the road when asked to explain why they are dressed oddly and carry swords...
“We banish them with the Nine-Syllable Mantra”
“The Nine-Syllable Mantra consists of: Rin, Pyo, To, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen… When one chants this mantra, one stands reverently, and clenches one’s teeth 36 times, then with one’s right thumb one draws four vertical lines and five horizontal ones and then shouts “OBEY FORTHWITH!” All manner of devils, apparitions, and heathens will immediately be delivered from evil.”
More information about this movie can be found here and here, it is definitely worth watching.
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