01-05-2025, 12:36 AM
Ken (1964)
The 2nd in criterion’s sword trilogy. This is in B&W (Kiru was color) and set in modern times (the 60s). It’s the saga of a university Kendo team captain who is utterly dedicated to the art. ‘Ken’ means sword - same character as jian in Chinese and the Ken in Kendo.
It brought me back to my SJSU days when I was doing Kendo & Fencing. The Kendo practices were unsettlingly similar to what I did. I didn’t realize that it was so standardized. In the latter part of thr film, the team goes to a training camp and does a lot of grueling roadwork which reminded me of those NCAA Fencing days. All the practice was well choreographed - it looked exactly like university Kendo.
The team captain reminded me of a Mishima character; he’s solely dedicated to the art and reaching towards the divine - the sun - with it. I could relate to the aspiration even though I was never near that dedicated. The ending was a total punch in the gut. I somewhat anticipated it as it was foreshadowed and it was very Mishima.
Ken was such a different film than Kiru, arguably the best Kendo film ever, but there’s not many that I know of so that’s a low bar. Nevertheless, D00M recommended, especially for the D00M sword peeps.
The 2nd in criterion’s sword trilogy. This is in B&W (Kiru was color) and set in modern times (the 60s). It’s the saga of a university Kendo team captain who is utterly dedicated to the art. ‘Ken’ means sword - same character as jian in Chinese and the Ken in Kendo.
It brought me back to my SJSU days when I was doing Kendo & Fencing. The Kendo practices were unsettlingly similar to what I did. I didn’t realize that it was so standardized. In the latter part of thr film, the team goes to a training camp and does a lot of grueling roadwork which reminded me of those NCAA Fencing days. All the practice was well choreographed - it looked exactly like university Kendo.
The team captain reminded me of a Mishima character; he’s solely dedicated to the art and reaching towards the divine - the sun - with it. I could relate to the aspiration even though I was never near that dedicated. The ending was a total punch in the gut. I somewhat anticipated it as it was foreshadowed and it was very Mishima.
Ken was such a different film than Kiru, arguably the best Kendo film ever, but there’s not many that I know of so that’s a low bar. Nevertheless, D00M recommended, especially for the D00M sword peeps.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse