04-22-2020, 10:01 AM
The film opens with two samurai groups clashing big time, a major sword-fight, Toshiro Mifune leading one group, a master spear-fighter commanding the other (though Takeshi Shimura is prominent too). There is voiceover telling the year and major players in this epic battle, the famous showdown at Kagiya corner, and how the great Araki Mataemon (Mifune) single-handedly smit 22 samurai. Then the voice-over pauses, to resume more somberly, But samurai are not so easy to kill, and the story has been exaggerated to the stuff of legend. The voice-over catalogs other mistakes in the popular tale, the battle fades out, and suddenly we're in the present (1952) in the area where the engagement happened, with voice-over telling of the flatter landscape, how there's now a dirt road, and the small village has changed, with its many shops today. Fade-out.
Fade-in, and suddenly we're in the mid-1600s and the place is as it was, and the drama proceeds without further intrusion, giving a much more accurate accounting of events.
Kurosawa wrote the screenplay, and Kazuo Mori (a noted period specialist) directs. It's a fascinating movie, though mostly suspense, as most of the story involves tracking down the target and planning and laying the ambush. Like Roshomon it emphasizes the emotions of the combatants, especially fear, even panic, and gives chaos its due in the fighting. Everything is downplayed, everyone is reduced, and as DM said of the fights in Roshomon (and I agree), this is much closer what I imagine real combat would be like.
The movie is full of flashbacks as the moment of truth approaches, filling in who's who and why they've come to this. In one such flashback, Mifune and Shimuna sip sake together while guardedly inquiring of each other's allegiance. And no, I don't understand all the families and clans and relationships going on, but someone was killed, and despite Mifune and Shimuna being of the same house and best friends, they are honor-bound to fight on opposite sides when the day of reckoning comes.
Of that reckoning, there's one intriguing element. One of the most formidable samurai that Mifune's side will face is Hanbei, who wields a long spear. Hanbei is seen several times throughout the movie riding a horse, while two footmen walk alongside, taking turns carrying his spear. It's a very long spear, carried upright, its tip socked with fabric. In planning, Mifune stresses to his men that they must immediately separate and kill those footmen, and at all cost keep Hanbei from getting that spear.
Though slow-moving, fraught with flashback, and with only one fight scene at the end (ignoring the opening fiction), I found the movie fascinating. Definitely not for superhero fans. Or those looking for flashy acrobatic sword-fighting.
Fade-in, and suddenly we're in the mid-1600s and the place is as it was, and the drama proceeds without further intrusion, giving a much more accurate accounting of events.
Kurosawa wrote the screenplay, and Kazuo Mori (a noted period specialist) directs. It's a fascinating movie, though mostly suspense, as most of the story involves tracking down the target and planning and laying the ambush. Like Roshomon it emphasizes the emotions of the combatants, especially fear, even panic, and gives chaos its due in the fighting. Everything is downplayed, everyone is reduced, and as DM said of the fights in Roshomon (and I agree), this is much closer what I imagine real combat would be like.
The movie is full of flashbacks as the moment of truth approaches, filling in who's who and why they've come to this. In one such flashback, Mifune and Shimuna sip sake together while guardedly inquiring of each other's allegiance. And no, I don't understand all the families and clans and relationships going on, but someone was killed, and despite Mifune and Shimuna being of the same house and best friends, they are honor-bound to fight on opposite sides when the day of reckoning comes.
Of that reckoning, there's one intriguing element. One of the most formidable samurai that Mifune's side will face is Hanbei, who wields a long spear. Hanbei is seen several times throughout the movie riding a horse, while two footmen walk alongside, taking turns carrying his spear. It's a very long spear, carried upright, its tip socked with fabric. In planning, Mifune stresses to his men that they must immediately separate and kill those footmen, and at all cost keep Hanbei from getting that spear.
Though slow-moving, fraught with flashback, and with only one fight scene at the end (ignoring the opening fiction), I found the movie fascinating. Definitely not for superhero fans. Or those looking for flashy acrobatic sword-fighting.
I'm nobody's pony.