05-14-2020, 05:05 PM
[Note: Sword of Doom precedes this in chronological order, but I recently saw it and therefore skipped it.]
I have mixed feelings about this one. It's a solid period piece and I liked the story line, but it has a long fuse. A very very long fuse. Action impends beyond all measure, to the point that I was muttering "Get on with it" time and again in the later stages. Interestingly (perhaps tellingly), I muttered it in such fluent Japanese that LCF emerged from her room thinking I'd forgotten to mute the soundbar.
Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an aging swordsman living the quiet life. When his smarmy clan lord orders Isaburo's son to marry his mistress who has fallen into disfavor, Isaburo grudgingly commands his son to do so. After the wedding, to their surprise, the woman proves good-natured and hardworking. The son falls in love with her, and they bear a child.
But when the clan lord suddenly reverses his decision and wants the woman back, Isaburo and his son beg to differ, and this slowly builds to the rebellion of the title.
What makes this movie something of a cause celebre for women is that Isaburo and his son consult the woman on her wishes, and this drives the plot.
The first person to appear in the movie is Mifune. The second is Tatsuya Nakadai, the smirking gun-toting villain from Yojimbo. But here he is Mifune's best friend. Of course, that doesn't amount to a hill of beans when duty calls in a samurai film.
I have mixed feelings about this one. It's a solid period piece and I liked the story line, but it has a long fuse. A very very long fuse. Action impends beyond all measure, to the point that I was muttering "Get on with it" time and again in the later stages. Interestingly (perhaps tellingly), I muttered it in such fluent Japanese that LCF emerged from her room thinking I'd forgotten to mute the soundbar.
Mifune stars as Isaburo Sasahara, an aging swordsman living the quiet life. When his smarmy clan lord orders Isaburo's son to marry his mistress who has fallen into disfavor, Isaburo grudgingly commands his son to do so. After the wedding, to their surprise, the woman proves good-natured and hardworking. The son falls in love with her, and they bear a child.
But when the clan lord suddenly reverses his decision and wants the woman back, Isaburo and his son beg to differ, and this slowly builds to the rebellion of the title.
What makes this movie something of a cause celebre for women is that Isaburo and his son consult the woman on her wishes, and this drives the plot.
The first person to appear in the movie is Mifune. The second is Tatsuya Nakadai, the smirking gun-toting villain from Yojimbo. But here he is Mifune's best friend. Of course, that doesn't amount to a hill of beans when duty calls in a samurai film.
I'm nobody's pony.