This hopefully will be a shorter review since I tried to put all the historical things that might be necessary to know in the review of Part One.
Yet again we have the beginning of the film be that message to Defend Greater Asia. Yet again this was made during World War Two. Wonder if they took those messages out in the release of the America version in the late Seventies. I don't know but I could see that.
Going to probably be another three minute opening credit sequence.
At three minutes and twenty four seconds, the opening actual narration starts where the entirety of Part one gets summarized in about a minute or two so the whole of Part One might be somewhat skippable because of this.
But yeah the Tokugawa Shogunate is an important part of Japanese history and the Shogunate idea itself influenced a lot of Japanese history and had the Shogun vs. the Imperial Palace a lot of times. Japanese History, or the quick stuff I learned of it is a bit convoluted and weird.
Looks like the opening shot of this film starts with people watching a Noh Theater performance- that or Kabuki- but either way they are watching a play and I think its the more aristocratically preferred Noh that is being seen.
The person that is going to ask the emperor to reinstate the Asano household- one of the Tokugawa himself and next in line to be Shogun has heard the Oishi is plotting to kill Lord Kira. And Tsunayoshi Tokugawa's talk of how the Chinese sages (referencing Confucian ideals) talked about filial duty and how he thinks that sometimes people have to actually not just use the sages to do actions is rather nice to see. China was for a long time the like ideal Asian superpower cultural hotbed of Asia to Japan until the foreign powers really destroyed this worldview in the mid 1800's with unequal treaties and Western superiority of weapons showed that maybe China was a bit backwards. The defeat of China and the opening of the ports of Japan thanks to what Japan termed his Black Ships really made the Japanese have a existential crisis. And the modernization of Japan commenced really around that time and decades later the Japanese military in the 1860's rebuilt their military on the French model of the army- which is ironic in hindsight because the French would lose to the Prussian military in the Franco-Prussian War. But realize that Western idea still existed in even the years of 1700 or so because the Dutch have a trading port in Japan- enough so the view of the West ironically was that the Dutch were a superpower in the European stage and that the study of Western ideas was termed in Japanese as "Dutch Studies" Tangentially explaining that there's Western ideas in Japan is somewhat important when talking about China because while the Chinese were seen as pretty sweet creators of culture even in the 1700's there was beginning to be an influx of Western ideas that went against Japanese Eastern ideas. And one of them was Christianity which really had some foreign ideas and the Japanese really persecuted Japanese Christians as being like anti Japanese or something like that.
Just saying that the cool Jidai Geki films and what they are showing aren't really the whole picture since there were western ideas coming in and Christian missionaries mucking stuff up for the Tokugawa period. Samurai films are super awesome but some of these other things that also happened don't really appear in them.
Also realize that Tsunayoshi's "We are not Chinese" speech is also probably referencing Japan's World War Two effort because Japan in 1937 started invading China and had the whole mess in Nanking that the West really didn't like since it was a complete massacre, raping and pillaging with the Japanese military just doing atrocities of war. But the beauty of Japan Westernizing is that they looked like the most forward thinking in Asia and really started their war machine going. And since they thought they were amazing, they now thought that they were the best in Asia. So there might be a sense of just being better than their neighbors in this speech.
I was right- those were Noh performances that they were watching for fun. And dange one of the Ronin is coming to see the Noh performance and Lord Kira will be in attendance- this may be a problem. Looks like Tsunayoshi is trying to goad the Ronin into action. Good guy Ronin calling out the Tokugaw for being rather not great people with abolishing 20 House of good repute and for Asano's judgement being unfair. But Suke'emon is the person calling the Tokugawa out for having Asano die- I bet this won't go well since he's also calling out the idea that he's a descendant of Ieyasu Tokugawa and he should have done something.
As a side note, the Tokugawa clan ruled pretty much from 1600-1868 which was the Meiji Restoration so having a general clamp on power for almost three hundred years is rather impressive. Probably why the Jidai Geki/ chanbara films of Japan like using the Tokugawa Shogunate Eras as a backdrop is because that covers a lot of times and the Warring States period gets rather confusing. the Heian Period before that was a really long time ago- but the Tokugawa had a really long time of relative peace for the land. Dang it Kiyo you and Suke'emon will try to kill Kira during a Noh performance? That's going to be bad- and on another note, because of the attack Kira looks rather sinister or at least kind of more ugly than he was though just slightly. Probably just the use of makeup to get that effect. Okay so Kiyo lied and the Noh player that Suke'emon attacks is on their side but its still a bit funny to see Suke'emon get beat up by a dude in a Noh performance dress.
Didn't expect to see a Noh performance filmed but some of the shots they can do because of the camera is nice with the performer guy getting up close to the camera and all that jazz.
And Oishi gets the news that the person he wanted to take the Asano household forward seems to be going to continue being under house arrest. Still a little more than 30 minutes into the film and nobody has died or anything. Wonder how this will end. But seemingly now that I think their supplication to get the Asano house back in order has failed now they don't have to worry about seemingly now being unjustified in their action to kill Kira.
Finally after 35 minutes into this film Oishi agrees that they can now FINALLY avenge Asano. No more don't do it cause we will get the household back soon junk. Nope now we are finally starting for the main event action to start. Oh man looks like Oishi slightly glanced at the camera there just like silently saying oh hey there now we can get on with this. Aren't you glad?
Yes. Yes I am.
Scene transition explanation that now its December 14, 1702. Ooh snow. That's rather pretty. Hope its real and not that stuff they used in the Wizard of Oz- I think that was like asbestos or something equally terrible. And now Oishi has come to the Lady Asano's residence in Edo. Somehow Lady Asano hasn't seen Oishi in three years since he's in the domain that the Asano branch rules and she's been in Edo. I guess it would make sense since samurai seem to not leave the domain they were in that often. Those Edo troublemakers that wanted to take the fight into their own hands want to do the deed in the open. And with Kira seemingly afraid of retaliation he seems to be headed off inot his household's castle to wait until Spring. Though Oishi does have a point, with Kira getting on in years the idea of attacking now because he might die at anytime is foolish because there are retainers of the Asano household themselves that are that old and yet those guys aren't dead yet.
Finally. 55 minutes in and Lady Asano gets the news that Oishi and the other retainers broke into Lord Kira's place.
Okay so maybe calling Kuranosuke and Oishi the same person was wrong of me- because on the scroll Lady Asano gets that explains what happened to Lord Kira and the 47 Ronin Oishi leads one batallion and Kuranosuke another.
I'll just chalk this up to there being like a lot of people in this and without color and really long focuses on scenes and sorry but everyone looks similar in dress since all of them are samurai and they dress similar that I messed up on the names.
So if I accidentally have been saying that Oishi does everything like I have been doing, blame my sheer inability to seemingly get the difference betweeen people. Since the use of names can change in Japanese with how close you are to someone- using the last name and an honorific or the first name and an honorific I guess I got confused who was who and who people were playing.
No wait I checked wikipedia- the name of the main character is Oishi Kuranosuke and the other Oishi is just that- a different person.
See this is why I like and don't like this film right now. Well besides that I don't get to see the 47 Ronin just wreck Lord Kira's place and behead him in revenge- and therefore three hours into this experience of two parts, I have not seen more than one fight scene and that was short.
This is like an event study instead of a character study and I am ambivalent towards it. Wait- if this was like just now how did Lady Asano get the scroll cause somebody had to write this by hand and whatnot. Still mad that I didn't see any form of action sequence god and this seems to be the best so far look into the 47 Ronin event on film that I right now know of.
And still with fifty minutes left and the 47 Ronin alive and well right now- they are first of all going to die for their action but they have finally accomplished their mission and on March 14- the anniversary of the death of Lord Asano the Ronin go to his grave to present the head of Kira. It's actually kind of touching how loyal they were to the end mission of avenging their master. And in a way they kind of become thanks to this event like folk hero samurai that to some are like the ideal samurai because of their sheer loyalty to their cause. Sheer loyalty to a cause is useful and why possibly the story was filmed when it was because the Japanese military use the code of bushido to put a code of ethics into their troops. They seemingly styled themselves as a continuation of the samurai.
The whole kneeling at the shrine scene explaining the hardships they endured to complete their mission is really touching.
And Good Guy Oishi makes Sake'emon go to the Inspector General to tell him what happened. Even though they were loyal to Asano- the Shogun will be super mad that this happened because having disorder like this looks bad and so the Ronin will be criminals to the Shogunate because of what they did.
Actually forgot that there was a intertitle transition because its been like thirty/ forty minutes since the last one. Its says 46 Ronin were ordered to commit harakiri- I think I remember that one of them was too young or something that it would be weird for him to die too. I could be entirely wrong but the movie says 46 Ronin in this one. And now yet again a change in time- February 3, 1703. And Lady Asano sends the 47 Ronin flowers- they are going to die very soon and she is sending flowers in mourning. What's sad is that in celebration since this is probably going to be their last night alive, some of the men decide to perform a variety show because why not they are going to die anyway and spending their night enjoying themselves is better than the opposite. I do have to say though that having some levity here is nice because watching three hours of sad stuff happening without some funny stuff happening is kind of hard to take.
And now there's a woman pretending to be a samurai to see one of the Ronin. Don't really care since still there's thirty minutes left but sure let's spend some time with Samurai Lady. Oh so she feel in love with one of the Ronin and was going to marry him but he stood her up on the altar and then they found out about the attack on Kira's estate and then she came here to see him. Thank you Exposition Old Guy, I have definitely needed to know why Samurai Lady plot device/plot point is here. Actually how did nobody question your samurai look Samurai Lady- you look super feminine close up. What? Were people just like of course that is a samurai no questions asked. That's dumb of them. Good on you Oishi- saying that Samurai Lady should be actually mad at being stood up at the altar and that this love and devotion is a flight of fancy because the 47 Ronin are now cause celebre. Don't see your lover Samurai Lady or else he will lose his resolve to commit harakiri- Oishi just laying the knowlege on this girl. Still having a woman crossdress to see if the man that stood her up on her wedding day that's cool to see in a 1940's movie. And the man she loves talks to Oishi while she's in the room and he says he doesn't know her. Dang that's pretty cold man. But no actually he keeps one of her things as a memento so he does love her. Good Guy Samurai Dude good job there- cause hey the last five to ten minutes has
And hey while they have to perform harakiri- it could have been worse with them having to be hanged or beheaded for having an affront to the Shogun's laws. I do have to say that while the Part Two has not gotten any better- I have to give them due props for the set design and the costumes. And hey Lord Kira's son got his lands confiscated and house abolished and he is in house arrest. The fight for justice on the part of the 47/46? Ronin (thanks movie) was not in vain. I have to comment that one of my favorite things in old movies is the use of large sets and a lot of extras. Without CGI and stuff like that, they had to use a lot of practical effects or strange effects to make things work and its just cool to see how large some casts for a film could be.
Oh and remember Samurai Lady? Yeah she decided to commit harakiri too to show her loyalty to the man she loved. And while her dad got reinstated into the service of the dude that helped keep the 47 Ronin chill at his place- with the whole news of his daughter committing seppuku, that'd probably kill him so there goes that household name. Good job Samurai Lady for killing your family name for love. That was a terrible death scene- she just collapses forward so stupidly. And since Oishi is the leader of the samurai he has to be the captain going down with his ship. And so the movie ends with like three minutes of relative silence with the names of the Ronin being called for execution and Oishi standing up and slowly walking topretwards the camera when he hears him name being called.
Finally after 223 minutes or about 3 hours and 40 minutes so ends the tale of the 47 Ronin movies. Sure Seven Samurai by Kurosawa is like if I remember correctly like 3 hours 47 or whatever but this felt so much more slow and plodding to get to the final scenes and I have no idea why Samurai Lady died cause that was kind of dumb in a way.
Overall I thought this movie was pretty meh. The set design, the cinematography, the filming, the costumes- all bloody fantastic. The character of Oishi? Also super fantastic he made the movie for me all the good philosophical scenes and character deepening moments pretty much had him in it- and his sheer devotion to Asano was hearbreakingly fantastic to watch. This was a great film in a lot of ways- the thing with the extremely long takes and lots of dialogue to get to that point and that whole later added subplot in part two? Yeah a lot of that could have been taken out. And that Noh play in the beginning and Suke'emon chasing that random dude around? Could have primarily be taken out cause that looked so silly. The seven to ten minutes of the variety show put on by the samurai? Maybe could have been shortened but some of the camera work in that scene for 1940's was kind of impressive. The whole thing where we didn't actually see the beheading and killing of Kira? Sure understandable because that's super violent but I would have loved some form of sword use- the last time I saw a sword being swung around menacingly was in the one scene in Part One like eight minutes in where Asano attacks Kira the one and only time. That was it. A samurai film without really anything that would be recognizable as a Samurai film with swordfighting? Yeah never would have thought I'd have seen the day.
Overall I have to say that I liked this about the same so six out of ten- primarily because taking the whole film as a whole, the first half had way more scenes that seemed actually plot relevant but the second half had more scenes that I felt myself feel true emotion- the scene at the grave of Asano and the final few minutes of the film come to mind- those alone and the character of Oishi being so strong and developed and some of the dialogue in these films are great.
Just sad that I think I have had way more enjoyable experiences in later Jidai Geki/ Chanbara films by at least Akira Kurosawa alone. This film really seems to be kind of weird- a propaganda film that really failed at what it might have wanted to do on some level and a financial misstep. yet critical darling.
Remember guys- critical opinions can actually be pretty trash and I say watch movies for your own enjoyment. While I might not have liked this film for the sheer length of it and epic nature for a 1940's era film when taken together it was rather nicely done. It just felt an hour too long. Somewhere it could have been shortened.
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