I was really looking forward to watching this Japanese movie because its premise was so strong. Samurai Rebellion did turn out to be a well-made film with great visuals and very interesting camera angles. The fact that I’m remembering the nice camera angles so much does speak to the film’s somewhat slow pace, but Samurai Rebellion is not a boring movie and Toshiro Mifune is always fun to watch.
Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai's characters are friends in Samurai Rebellion, yet still find themselves in a deadly confrontation by the movie's end.
The story is about a woman who’s dismissed from her life of privilege where she was originally brought for breeding and to serve the lord of a clan.
Ichi (Yoko Tsukasa) is expelled from the royal court and married off to Yogoro (Takeshi Kato). Things get complicated when the lord demands her return.
Circumstances arise later that cause the lord to desire the return of the woman. This doesn’t sit well with the new husband, whom she now has a daughter with. Toshiro Mifune plays the father of the husband. A Samurai Rebellion ensues, though the rebellion consists only of the husband and father. There is no epic battle scene with a cast of thousands. Also, potential viewers should be warned that this film does not have a happy Hollywood ending.
Samurai Rebellion's Toshiro Mifune, in the role of Isaburo, paces and contemplates his family's options "off the beaten path" on his smartly groomed sand lawn.
If you’re looking for a sword happy Samurai film, this would not be it. The sword fighting is held mostly until the end and the group fighting scene is not very convincing. But multiple attacker sword fighting scenes are rarely realistic, even in modern movies.
Samurai Rebellion's Toshiro Mifune and Takeshi Kato, as father and son, relax after gutting their home to make room for swordplay in an upcoming battle with their own clan.
I felt the very last fight scene duel between Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai at the conclusion of the film was nicely done because of its appropriate brevity and pleasingly concise resolution. Real sword fighting typically involved very brief interaction between combatants.
If you are interested in Japanese cinema, and if you don’t need car crashes and other intense activity to constantly stimulate you and keep you awake in a movie, this story is certainly compelling enough to be worthwhile. I enjoyed watching Samurai Rebellion.
Toshiro Mifune advances into a field of deep brush swarming with riflemen for one last battle after his duel with Tatsuya Nakadai in Samurai Rebellion.
Samurai Rebellion Misc. Tidbits
Movies often have to be unrealistic and contrived, but I’m still bothered by it when contrivances are out in the open and left there glaring at you. I admire films that find a way to keep such contrivances from mooning you unapologetically during the story.
This movie has a few “dropping its pants” moments for sure.
The guns at the end and lack of them earlier might be explained away due to a need to ration the use and placement of firearms if they were in short supply, but before that problem showed up I was already wondering where the archers were in the evening courtyard scene.
If an undignified slaughter was going to take place anyway, I doubt archers would have been excluded as a means of eliminating the obstacle. You’ll see what I mean when you get to that scene.
And why the hell are we sticking to the road (especially right at the gate) at the end of the movie. The set design did not include any massive “Wall of China” effect to preclude a little hike over a different hill.
I suppose if movies were not allowed to be made that had problems like this, there would be very few movies to see in this world. And a movie like this one is meant to be viewed more as a poem. If you solve the problems I just pointed out, you bypass the symbolic nature and drama of the confrontations that subsequently ensue.
But I do prefer when a film is better able to conceal its contrivances.
For Japanese Language Students
Though I found some of the Japanese dialogue in Samurai Rebellion to be highly listenable, in a large number of scenes conversations were too fast to pick out much for low level Japanese students.
Still, some lines in the film were spoken clearly and distinctly.
Samurai Rebellion
Entertainment Value: Very Good
Listening Practice: Good
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Writer: Shinobu Hashimoto
from a novel by Yasuhiko Takiguchi
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Japanese Title:
上意討ち 拝領妻始末 (Jōi-uchi: Hairyō tsuma shimatsu)
Original Release: 1967
Samurai Rebellion is available from Netflix.
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