A bridge between a film you've already seen and one most people haven't. Here's what they share, and what the second one does that the first one doesn't.
Okamoto appears to be having a little fun with chanbara tropes here. Two swordsmen, each with something to prove, find themselves on opposite sides of a clan dispute. Naturally, honor wins out, and they join forces with rebels holed up in a mountain cabin. It is what it is.