Tonight in D/FW is a weekly features that relieves you of the tedium of deciding what to do on a weeknight.

“Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune star in the story of a wandering samurai who exists in a maelstrom of violence,” says the Criterion Collection, which issued this 1966 film from director Kihachi Okamoto on DVD a few years ago. But not even a Criterion Collection DVD will equal the splendor of seeing ‘Sword of Doom’ on the big screen at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff tonight at 7:30 p.m.

If you need more convincing, consider these words from the blog Cinematic Shotgun:

“The protagonist isn’t just an anti-hero. He is unrepentantly evil, a demon warrior in human form. Sword of Doom’s hyper-stylized violence is a precursor to the suicidal glory of such blood ballets as The Wild Bunch and Taxi Driver and the heroic bloodshed of Hong Kong cinema. The bloodletting functions as something more than just violence for violence’s sake, but as an outward expression of character.

. . .

“In one amazing sequence that obviously influenced Park Chan Wook’s Oldboy, the camera slowly dollies in an uninterrupted take as Tsukue strikes down a series of opponents. It ends with the iconic shot of Tsukue standing in the mist leaving behind a trail of carnage.”

Doesn’t that sound cool? If I didn’t have a conflicting assignment in my schedule, I would be there too.

While there, you might also want to purchase advance tickets for the original ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ which screens tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. It’s in 16mm and only costs $5 per ticket! Where else can you see a young Jack Nicholson for five minutes in black and white for five bucks?