Archive for the ‘Japanese Black & White Movies’ Category
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.
As I get this review site underway and jump back into Kurosawa planning to re-watch many of the Akira Kurosawa films in my library for review purposes, I decided to start out the Kurosawa directory with Rashomon, something completely fresh and new to me and one of Akira Kurosawa’s most famous films. Though I have owned the movie for some time, this Rashomon review comes after my very first viewing.
- Machiko Kyo, in the role of Masako, gives her disturbing account of the incident. The odd smudges on her forehead are meant to represent eyebrows. It was the fashion during the Heian period for ladies of the court to remove their natural eyebrows and replace them with soot marks higher up called “moth wings”.
I can understand how Rashomon was ground breaking for its time, but a film made in 1950 no matter how good then is going to be a bit primitive in many ways. You must be prepared for that and be willing to be patient with some aspects of the production. However, the direction of Kurosawa and the camera work of Kazuo Miyagawa is still interesting in many scenes.
Some of your patience will be needed simply because this film was made for a specific time and specific viewing audience who were comfortable with many elements and behaviors presented in the story. The overacting, stereotypical characters, and general presentation are likely suited to the expectations of a 1950’s Japanese audience.
Though the story does rely on dialogue, Rashomon plays a lot like a silent movie, and Kurosawa has indicated this was his intent. The interesting outdoor testimony scenes provide nice separators for the multiple presentations of the crimes. I kept imagining the actors were in a corner of the famous Ryoanji rock garden in Kyoto (minus the bigger rocks) during the scenes where each character is attempting to tell the story in a way that presents themselves in a more favorable light.
The music in Rashomon is often heavy handed and an obtrusive and displeasing element, especially the odd bastardized version of Ravel’s Bolero that jarringly pops up in the film. But it does sort of lend a silent movie effect, as if someone was down in the orchestra pit banging away on an old dilapidated piano. The music is not piano music and perhaps not quite as crude as I am portraying, but it often seemed to have a life of its own, as if it was separate from the movie in many places.
There are no really admirable or genuinely sympathetic lead characters in Rashomon, so it is a bit of a mental ordeal to watch this intentionally unpleasant story shared over and over again in its different incarnations.
Toshiro Mifune's bandit is portrayed almost as a hero in this version of the story.
Toshiro Mifune is fascinating as always, though the over-the-top psychotic laughter from him and Machiko Kyo late in the film is very annoying. The laughter served its purpose of forcing the point that these characters are not intended to be worthy of the audience’s compassion, but it is far too excessive and doesn’t play well today.
There are a lot of issues to consider in the presentation of Rashomon, and it is at the very least a thought provoking film. It is a film that does not wrap things up with definitive answers to the questions posed. It leaves the viewer to ponder and consider our sometimes tenuous perception of truth and reality.
If this review at first sounds like I was not very fond of Rashomon, I should clarify that I did not strongly dislike the film. I learned some things from studying Rashomon. Perhaps much of what I learned was revealed in the DVD bonus features, especially the subtitled interviews from part of the NHK documentary The World of Kazuo Miyagawa with Kurosawa and cinematographer Miyagawa. I watched the NHK supplied material before viewing Rashomon. I think it was valuable and though I wouldn’t normally recommend this, I do suggest watching the bonus features first with Rashomon. It gave me a few good things to look for and made the viewing of this “out of time” movie less tedious.
If you enjoy studying movies and are interested in significant films that are credited with changing the face of cinema around the world, then you may very much enjoy and appreciate this classic film. If you are looking for a fun and easy to watch Japanese movie, you might want to pass on Rashomon.
Extras
After writing this review, I also forced myself to sit through the commentary by Donald Richie, an author of several books on Japanese film. Though I listen to almost every single commentary provided with every single film I view at home, I say “forced” in this case because I’m always hesitant to sit through commentaries recorded by people who had absolutely nothing to do with the production of the film being discussed.
In fairness to Mr. Richie, he was not a pointless babbler, and I definitely learned some things from listening to his comments. Though I was hesitant at the beginning of the commentary, I do not regret taking the time to watch Rashomon a second time with Mr. Richie‘s accompaniment. My appreciation for the film was certainly increased and if you add this title to your library, I would say the commentary is definitely worthwhile for your second viewing of the film.
Donald Richie, though obviously a fan of Kurosawa’s work, suggested quite directly in his commentary that Kurosawa had no real talent for music direction in his films, and that the composer was not at fault for the inappropriate soundtrack. He blames Kurosawa, sharing a story of how Kurosawa directed the composer to come up with something Bolero-esque. That was interesting to me, especially after my own reaction to the weird music composition during my first viewing.
For Japanese Language Students
As far as listening comprehension practice goes, there are many heated exchanges consisting of dialogue delivered at a very high rate of speed. I do not think this is a good choice for beginner Japanese students trying to pick out lines by ear.
Savage Japan Movie Reviews
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Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon
Entertainment Value: Moderate
Listening Practice: Poor
Film Study Opportunity: Excellent
Rashomon is available from Netflix.
