Rating: 
Summary: An artistic statement
Review:
Being a huge fan of samurai films, an Asian, and an art student, its no surprise that I truly enjoyed and appreciated this film. The camera work was lovely, I absolutely love black and white, and the story had enough elements; cliched, yes, but meant to be I think, to keep things running smoothly. The modern music also surprisingly worked pretty well, unlike in other efforts than have attempted to accompany newer music into a film with an old timeframe (A Knights Tale, for example). Come to think of it, the pop culture edge the film contained was actually quite cool and to me is what really helps this film standout from others in the genre. Many issues are touched upon, like revenge, redemption, friendship, peace, love, and honor, and its just fun to watch. A great way to occupy your time.
Oh, and for the boring, uncreative, closed minded worker bee who gave this film one star WITHOUT even watching the entire film, I hope you enjoy the remainder of your life as a number in a world with a beauty you will never understand.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! Amazingly good!
Review: First of all, I have got to say that this film was long, and I enjoyed every single second of it.
If you don't know what to expect, this film may be a little shocking at first, combining a classic look of black and white film with campy comedy and a very modern soundtrack. Its certainly an artsy film and a great tribute to old samurai films.
Rating:
Summary: very cool movie
Review: I agree with most of the other reviews--I just wanted to add that I thought the movie was very well done, beatifully filmed, and just very cool overall. The soundtrack was amazing and the visuals were just perfect. Get it and you'll agree.
Rating:
Summary: Traditional Samurai film fans, hear this...
Review: I am a huge fan of the early pioneering Samurai films, and of Kurosawa pictures. Now, that being stated, I must point out the evolutionary weights and measures, so to speak, upon which this film stands to reason. Certain persons have pointed out that this is not traditional and feel cheated by the "light-hearted" aspects therein. On the contrary, this film maintains a certain subtle tonality that is not easily recognized as depthy or textured. It remains epic in nature, yet steps outside the genre to throw a nod back to traditional pioneer filmakers and to break a little ground, as the very definition of pioneer is as thus. Plus, it rocks, literally. That being said, one should enjoy this movie, not sit there wishing it was done by Akira himself. And, I'm pretty sure if the man were still kicking, he would commend this effort of bringing a newfound faith into the cinema of today. Buy this film, fans and non-fans alike should enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: most satisfying
Review: I have always been intrigued by the Japanese samurai movie, but rarely satisfied by it. Even "Seven Samurai" I found to be off-putting and at times almost impossible to watch, that screechy ingénue for instance. And, for me, of all the actors in it, only Mifune registered. It was in equal parts a relief and an embarrassment when he showed up on screen Then there was the "47 Ronin" or was it 48 or 49? I'm not sure. That was total and unrelieved excruciation, almost. In that one, it was the ingénue who provided the relief as the grief stricken fiancé of the youngest ronin, determined to prove herself worthier in self sacrifice than all of them. The power of that performance made me sorry that the whole movie hadn't centered around her rather than the dry, dull and boringly self satisfied ronin.When I found the dvd of "Samurai Fiction" at Blockbuster, I was wary. But, always hopeful, I rented it anyway. I watched the trailer first and was appalled. It described the movie as hilariously funny. The footage shown was not particularly hilarious. I steeled myself for another disappointment and clicked on play and found enchantment It is not hilarious, at least not to my western sensibility but it is light and humorous, accessible and at times humanly moving. The action and the swordplay is clean and uncluttered and still exciting. It is a very self aware send up of a genre. But there is nothing smarmy or smirky about it nor is it overly reverential. In fact, it is perfect in tone and in all its performances. It has a certain amount of cleverness going for it, the black and white photography interspersed with flashes of red at intense moments, the musical score which uses rock and roll and even in one funny and sublime moment the music of Steven Foster. But what really sustains it and makes it all work is its warmth and real affection for the characters and the genre. It is a remarkable movie and a remarkable experience. At last, a samurai movie I can really enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Old School
Review: I need to put my two cents in. First let me say I'm from the old school samurai classics from Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Gosha, Inagaki, etc., etc. I've been brought up with these movies since the '50's. I've found the return of the chambara movies refreshing and wanting to draw the western culture into it's audience. Director Nakano took "Samurai Fiction" to even another level of audience. Back to the Japanese youths. This was a movie with great satire and humor, including action and a good story. It didn't take itself seriously. It just said "get in, sit down and shut up". Enjoy the ride.
Rating: 
Summary: HOTEI-SAN RULES, OK
Review: I saw this DVD in the shelves several months ago and was intrigued. Later I saw both installments of the "Kill Bill" saga and was particularly taken with a jam from the first volume's soundtrack called "Battle Without Honor Or Humanity" (which can now be heard in Jaguar ads, by the way).
Eventually I had heard that not only were some of Tarantino's scenes from "Kill Bill Vol. 1" taken directly from "Samurai Fiction", but the composer of "Battle Without Honor..." also scored the film and had a major starring role in it. I decided I had to give it a look.
And it was worth it. The movie is a different take on Akira Kurosawa's old skool samurai epics from the '50's and '60's. In some ways it's a bit of a send-up, but this is no lampoon in the vein of "Airplane" nor is it a knock-off/homage similar to...well, pretty much every movie Quentin Tarantino has ever made. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but the plot twist that brings the movie to its conclusion is hardly that of traditional martial arts movies (there seems to be more of "kinder and gentler" school of martial arts flicks being produced today...Jet Li's "Hero" is not dissimilar to "Samurai Fiction" in this regard).
There are enough old-skool elements that tie this film to its predecessors, but the film is marketed as "an MTV generation samuari movie", and I don't really see the connection (other than having prominent Japanese musicians playing roles and the score being more contemporarily pop-oriented rather than Japanese classical music), but the attitute is decidedly lighter. This is a good thing; Jackie Chan has longsince proved that comedy has a place in an otherwise serious action movie, and the humor in "Samurai Fiction" is nowhere nearly as obvious or Chaplin-esque as in Chan's work.
For me the real revelation was Tomoyasu Hotei, Japan's pop/rock superstar guitarist. He plays a master swordsman (Kazamatsuri) without alliance or direction who sets the events of the movie in motion by stealing a ceremonial samurai sword from the clan who enlisted him to be its guardian. No reason is ever given for his doing this; his motive seems to be simply "because I can".
He is not a typical martial arts antagonist; there are aspects of his character that make him seem to be far more honorable (and at times even more likeable) than Heishiro, the film's protagonist sworn to kill Kazamatsuri and return the sword to his clan. Complicating matters is the baggage taken on by Heishiro in the form of his two childhood friends and a pair of quasi-competent ninja sent by Heishiro's father to keep an eye on him. But I found Heishiro, though obviously intended to be cast as the "hero", to be rather an annoying personality. Chihuahua-like in both his manner and effectiveness, he was an annoyance whose physical (and especially mental) shortcomings were obvious to any other character in the film save himself.
The plot development (and the angle that makes this a "peaceful samurai" movie as described in the DVD's bonus materials) takes a unique twist when a mysterious stranger intervenes on Kazamatsuri's inevitable defeat of Heishiro and his companions and, with the help of his daughter, nurses the injured man back to health. Heishiro of course wants his revenge, but his saviors are pacifists who encourage the renunication of violence...even though Kazamatsuri is suspicious of the stranger's identity and begins to obsess over the idea of challenging him to a duel...
But Hotei is just amazing. It's difficult to tell what (if any) acting ability he has due to the minimal dialogue written for his character, but he definitely has presence. You can't take your eyes off him whenever he is onscreen. He is literally head and shoulders taller than anyone else onscreen, and he moves as effortlessly as the wind. And his eyes...he could cut diamonds with that stare. Terrific performance.
Watching this was a pleasing experience. The action is decent and the fight scenes are passable; none of the actors are professional martial artists and the production values aren't those of a Hong Kong action flick wherein a great number of special effects are used to enhance the action. But it is a well-shot film, mostly black-&-white with enough color scenes thrown in at intense moments to delight the arthouse crowd. The DVD extras are multiple (the documentary footage seems a bit redundant; an extra feature on scoring the movie would have been more appreciated by this reviewer); a nice "extra touch" are two scenes shown in color just to give an idea as to how the movie would look if shot naturally.
In short, this is a very interesting movie. It's artsy enough for the hipster sect, and it's got enough action to appeal to martial arts buffs. And it's not excessively violent despite the swordplay, nor is it sexually explicit despite a fair amount of the story taking place in a brothel (failed to mention that part, did I? You'll just have to see it in order to find out how that angle plays into the story). It's worth a viewing to anyone who's a fan of or at all curious about the genre.
Rating:
Summary: A classic in it's own right.
Review: I'm not sure why this movie is as far under the radar as it seems to be, but here's hoping it doesn't stay there. I bought this film sight-unseen, which is pretty rare. Like most people, I like to have some idea of what I'm plunking down my money for. For some reason, though, this movie sort of snuck off the shelf, took the twenty-five bucks out of my pocket, and came home with me before I'd even realized it. Maybe it was the cool, minimalist cover, or maybe I was still coming down off my "Kill Bill vol. 1" kick and wanted a Samurai film, I don't know. Either way, I found myself watching it last night, and I was floored by what I was seeing. You know those happy coincidences, where you realize you wound up with a lot more than you thought you were going to get? Like when you go to a new sushi place and realize they've got the best stuff around for less money than that other place you've been going to for years, plus you get more maki roll for your money? This movie brings a similar feeling to mind; "This is great! I'm glad I took a chance here." The story revolves around a young Samurai named Heishiro Inukai, who is on a quest to retrieve a clan treasure stolen by a wandering, steely-eyed Ronin by the name of Rannosuke. It's classic Samurai fare through and through, and for a Japanese film is remarkably straightforward, though it's never dull. Quite the opposite, actually. Director Hiroyuki Nakano uses the relative simplicity of the story as a blank canvas, and paints in a masterfully blended portrait of a classic Akira Kurosawa Samurai epic lovingly clothed in a hip, MTV Asia-style update. The effect sounds overwrought on paper, but Nakano pulls it off without seeming to bastardize the source material. In fact, it's one of the more respectful homage films to date, cinematography wise. Kurosawa film buffs (and I'll just get this out of the way right now, I am a MASSIVE Kurosawa fan) will instantly pick out the lifted scenes, from the busy, always-moving village shots of Seven Samurai to the dark, packed-earth barren landscapes of Throne of Blood. There's even some subtle references to Kurosawa's editing style, with extremely longs shots arranged horizontally, reverse-field cuts, and even a single (and therefore very obvious, and also very funny if you get it) horizontal wipe. Of course, it goes without saying that the movie is almost completely shot in black and white. Because really, why would one make a color Samurai Film? The best part about the movie, however, are the characters in it. Every cast member turns in a fantastic performance, and the people they portray are as memorable as you could want in a film. We've got your headstrong young Samurai on a quest for honor and glory with his two friends (one of whom is actually named Kurosawa, go figure) and along the way they come up against a conniving brothel mistress, a retired master fencer, his ridiculously attractive daughter, and the super-powerful, taciturn, skilled, very tall, and possibly gay antagonist. We also get an old master ninja who steals every scene he's in, and his two bumbling ninja students who manage to seem like they know what they're doing...Most of the time. It all blends in a great way because the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. It's not goofy or silly, and the fighting is quite realistic, but it's also a very funny movie. Heishiro's aptitude to spring nosebleeds at inopportune moments (and his love interest's apparent ignorance as to what that means) made me chuckle, and the movie's playfulness over the sexual orientation of Rannosuke is hysterical -- but you have to be quick or you miss some of it. The old ninja master is my personal favorite; you can't beat a guy who makes his first appearance by basically falling out of a hole in the ceiling. I don't want to ruin any more of the movie than I already have, but suffice to say that nearly everyone can enjoy Samurai Fiction on whichever level they like. It's simple and funny enough that even young kids can watch it (provided they don't mind subtitles - there is no dub, thankfully) but there's plenty of depth here to satisfy veterans of the genre. On a final, technical note, the DVD transfer is very good, though there is no surround sound, only Stereo Japanese. No matter, however, since the stereo mix is perfectly clear. One of the best things about the disc is actually the subtitles; they absolutely nailed it. My Japanese is admittedly quite poor, but it's good enough that I can pick out poorly-translated subtitles from a mile away. Thankfully, no such problems exist here. The titles flow well and keep the pace of the movie to right where it should be. There are a few extras that come with the film, one of which is inexplicably on Disc 1 while the rest are regulated to Disc 2. The main draw here, called "Samurai Non-Fiction", appears to be a spot shown on Japanese television regarding the making of the film. It's worth watching, and rounds out a nice package that is of much higher quality than a film like this would normally get with a U.S. release. Grab a copy of this film as soon as you can. This is one of those rare movies that has blanket appeal without diluting it's core concept, and looks great in any collection.
Rating:
Summary: Great Forigen Art Film
Review: It's a great story to watch, not your typical Jet Li film, but more along the lines of a Crouching Tiger, type movie
Rating:
Summary: Encore! Encore!
Review: Just about the most entertaining film I have see so far this year!! This is such good stuff!! It's reassuring to know that less can certainly be more in a movie. The black & white approach to the film was a nice "retro" touch. The soundtrack was enjoyable as well. A little jazz a little spaghetti western and a little surf music?!? Oh well, sounds strange but it certainly enhanced some scenes. The story line was typical but the dialogue certainly wasn't. Who ever wrote the script certainly wasn't going for that purist kinda thing, refreshing it was!! What really made this film work was the obvious pleasure the actors displayed in making it. That's always a big plus and also infectious!!! At least it infected me!!!
|
