mygoditsraining
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2008
- Messages
- 448
For anyone looking for something a little more character-driven than the standard chanbara plot, I'd reccomend seeing one of Yoji Yamada's trilogy of films:
Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai)
Kakushi ken oni no tsume (The Hidden Blade)
Bushi no ichibun (Love and Honour)*
All three follow the same general plot line: a young, relatively poor samurai struggles against personal circumstance whilst trying to maintain his honourable code, helped along the way by a woman that he loves or begins to love, with the story culminating in a duel with a deadly opponent.
What makes them so good is the performances of all 6 male and female leads - they are acting out roles that are, even by current Japanese standards, based on a significantly alien set of moral and social codes that restrict and bind them. It would be all too easy for the emotional moments to descend into a maelstrom of mugging and gurning, but Yamada keeps the players under a tight rein and all three films present controlled, subtle, and thus very powerful, dramas.
Really worth watching if you're into that sort of thing. Also, the 3rd movie has Takuya Kimura in it, which according to the other half would make it worth watching even if it was just a slideshow of pictures of his face. Women, eh?
*the 3rd movie will not be out on DVD in Europe until March now.
Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai)
Kakushi ken oni no tsume (The Hidden Blade)
Bushi no ichibun (Love and Honour)*
All three follow the same general plot line: a young, relatively poor samurai struggles against personal circumstance whilst trying to maintain his honourable code, helped along the way by a woman that he loves or begins to love, with the story culminating in a duel with a deadly opponent.
What makes them so good is the performances of all 6 male and female leads - they are acting out roles that are, even by current Japanese standards, based on a significantly alien set of moral and social codes that restrict and bind them. It would be all too easy for the emotional moments to descend into a maelstrom of mugging and gurning, but Yamada keeps the players under a tight rein and all three films present controlled, subtle, and thus very powerful, dramas.
Really worth watching if you're into that sort of thing. Also, the 3rd movie has Takuya Kimura in it, which according to the other half would make it worth watching even if it was just a slideshow of pictures of his face. Women, eh?
*the 3rd movie will not be out on DVD in Europe until March now.
