STORYLINE/PLOT:
In 1844 during the period of the last shogunate, Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira, half-brother of the Atashi clan shogun, had ruled with singular arrogance and cruelty. If he should be appointed to the shogun’s council, his reign of terror would only widen and deepen. Therefore, Sir Doi, a respected official and leader of a lesser clan, clandestinely arranged for his personal samurai, Shinzaemon Shimada, to assassinate Lord Naritsugu before he could travel to the shogun’s Atashi capital. Sir Doi was not to be implicated. Hearing and seeing examples of Lord Naritsugu’s cruelty, Shinzaemon vows to accomplish the mission.
There followed a period of gathering “a few good men” to help him. Originally, there were twelve samurai to set forth for the mission, including Shinzaemon and his nephews, Shinrouko, but a thirteenth was added when a forest guide proved to have the “right stuff.” Lord Naritsugu was protected by “top gun” samurai, Hanbei Kitou, who had studied, trained and fought with Shinzaemon when they were young fellows.
Needless to say, the Lord Naritsugu had a battalion or two of lesser samurai and other fighting men to help their lord run amok. Shinzaemon devised a plan to cut the Atashi men off at the pass. At a village along the route Lord Naritsugu was likely to travel, the thirteen assassins set up many cleverly devised traps that were calculated to cut down the odds against them. It was there that they would kill Lord Naritsugu. Unexpected re-enforcements for Lord Naritsugu evened the field. The arrogant Lord Naritsugu was not about to stop in fear of a handful or two of ruffians and entered into the trap. The fight to the death was on. Devil takes the hind part!
COMMENTARY:
This well-directed action film proved to have a lot of similarity to a good-quality American Western. The filming and framing of shots on horseback and in the village fight seemed very familiar to me, as I had watched a ton of Westerns growing up. I thought the fight in the village was exciting, clever and well-choreographed. Throughout the movie the framing of the shots was very natural. Inevitably, there are degrees of confusion during the melee.
There were many examples of violence, as one might expect from my outline.
The motivations of the key players were complex, including diametrically opposed views about the rights of ruler and ruled, about the duty of a samurai, and about the right to “preventive strikes” to eliminate a likely evil leader, or adviser to same, from attaining power. Revenge for all the wronged people also has a play. There is a certain kinship with the plot to kill Caesar, perceived by some senators as a tyrant.
For some movie-viewers the period costume designs might prove interesting, although viewers of Japanese samurai flicks will at once be at home.
The terrain covered by the two sides as they converged at the village was verdant and occasionally very lush. Hence, as with the John Ford Westerns, the beautiful landscape made a quiet counterpoint to the violence intermittently occurring.
I recommend this film to anyone who likes a good action movie with an exciting denouement in the form of a terrific battle between opposed forces, each believing that their way of life was threatened by the other.
Right on!
PRODUCTION KEYS:
Takashi Miike – director, Kaneo Ikegami/Daisuke Tengan – writers, Music – Koji Endo, Nobuyasu Kita – Cinematography, Kenji Yamashida – film editing, Kazuhiro Sawataishi – costume design
CAST KEYS:
Koji Yakusho (Shinzaemon Shimada), Takayuki Yamada – (Shinrouko), Goro Inagaki (Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira), Masachika Ichimura (Hanbei Kitou), Mikijiro Hira (Sir Doi), Hiroki Matsukata (Kuranaga), Seiji Rokkaku (Otake), Sosuki Takaoka (Hioki)
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