Three films earlier, masterless samurai Kyoshiro Nemuri (Raizo Ichikawa) embarrassed Princess Kiku, the Shogun's rogue daughter. Driven mad by the burn scars on her face, Kiku takes out her frustrations on innocent men and women--thereby drawing Kyoshiro's ire. The princess returns in this seventh film of the series, determined to kill Kyoshiro in the most painful manner possible. While fending off Kiku's army of assassins, Kyoshiro also rescues a young girl from a life of prostitution; eventually, the two storylines converge and the girl falls into the clutches of the evil princess.

"The Mask of the Princess" is self-consciously artsy. Director Akira Inoue favors indirect shots, partially obscuring his performers behind sliding doors; in several instances the camera even follows their feet, rather than their faces, as the events of the film unfold. This sometimes has a deleterious effect on the fight scenes, such as when Kyoshiro cuts down multiple opponents behind a row of trees, but there's enough action that these occasional obscured shots aren't a deal-breaker. Overall I enjoyed Inoue's approach. He doesn't rush the story (making this film about ten minutes longer than the average entry in the series), and there's a nice mix of indoor and outdoor photography by Yasukazu Takemura. Not a good starting point if you're new to the Sleepy Eyes of Death series, but fun if you've seen the previous films.

This is a typical samurai film. The masked daughter of the Shogun wants to kill a samurai who has seen her scarred face. I guess she's a little self-conscious about her appearance. Anyways, she sends waves of ninja warriors to kill the samurai and plots diabolical schemes / ambushes without much success.

This film is apparently part of a series featuring the same samurai character. The masked princess also featured in the 4th film of the series, so this is sort of a revenge film.

The film is okay, although production values are a little low, and the fight scenes are merely average. Still, if you like serial-type films or samurai films, this is good for a couple of hours of entertainment.