The 47 Ronin: Parts 1 & 2

Rating:
Summary: The Real Shogun
Review: This movie, made at the beginning of World War II, recalls the famous historical story of the revenge of the Ako ronin for their Lord's maltreatment at the hands of both the Shogunate and the wicked daimyo,Lord Kira, who continued to insult him and lie about him to the Shogun. Lord Asano's seppuku had been ordered by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the shogun, for drawing steel inside the palace, which Lord Asano did only after the most dire of insults by Lord Kira, including suggesting that Lord Asano ask his wife to sleep with the Imperial envoys in order to win an appointment that Tsunayoshi wanted for his mother. The insult was not only that Kira had driven Asano to this point, but that Kira was not also ordered to commit seppuku. The continued scheming by that scoundrel, Yanigasawa rounds out the plot. This stirring call to remember the greatness of shogunate Japan, particularly during a period (17th C)in which Japan was closed to the outside world was a clear message to the Japanese people during WWII--a message that was clear to them. There is a later (1962) version of the story which is somewhat more accessible to non-Japanese. There is a current (1999) 48-episode serial by Japanaese TV, NHK, which has many top Japanese stars including the top Kabuki actor in the main role of Oishi Kuranosuke. Whichever version you see, the story is incredibly stirring in it's attention to the loyalty of the 47 faithful ronin who endured incredible hardship--including risking the deaths of their families--to avenge Lord Asano's unjust death. Knowing a bit of Japanese history of the period is a good background to understanding the nuances.

Rating:
Summary: Among best pictures ever made
Review: This wonderfull movie is about attitudes and commitment of persons carried to extreme circumstances. The motivation of their actions is a great concern for them, thus dialogues are brilliant and invite to think about them. Environment were the movie occurs is beautifull, works of art displayed in it are breathtaking.
Definetily not a movie of action, don't look in it for flying swordmen, karate virtuosism or thinks like that, but if you are interested to see how hard things can happen to persons, and how they can behave with loyalty to reason, then you will be interested in this film. Rithm of the movie is, accordingly with its nature, contemplative, so it must be apreciated with an attentive and thoughtfull attitude.
Finally, the fact that Magister Mizobuchi didn't make an action film, might be a subtle act of rebellion to the goverment of his time (1942), that was rather disapointed with a movie about reason.