A Film By Hiroyuki Nakano: Samurai Fiction

An irreverent take on the samurai genre with a religious bent, and sprinkled with lots of humor an "don't take it so seriously" bits in order to sell the religious message at the end. Although told from a Japanese pagan or spiritualism point of view, it is in fact meant to sell christianity without using aspects from the judeo-christian tradition.The humor is typical the Japanese non-sequiter kind of stuff that doesn't have so much of a punch as a kind of bizarre take on whatever it's meant to be commenting on. As a for instance this film takes place in the mid to late 1600s, and yet there's pop cultural references, even a rendition of "Swanee River" with a musical saw. On top of all that there's a Japanese hard rock score underlying the story adding to the irreverent aspect, but also adding to the adventure feel of the film; i.e. this is serious, but not so serious kind of stuff.I like good samurai flicks, and this is not a good samurai flick. It's well put together for what it is, and again this is a "boy meets girl" kind of story with a side bar of a plot of having to overcome the sociopath who puts a kink in the local nobility social works.Overall I found this film tiring. I'm familiar with the irreverence of Japanese comical film making, and am thoroughly dissapointed with the religious bent at the end, the combining of both makes for a cliche film, even though it does have a number of surprises. However, if you're familiar with Japanese cinema in the least, then the surprises probably won't be all that surprising, so much as "oh, they had to throw that in there".The other bottom line is that I like serious samurai films, and this film reminds me a lot of what was done in the US and UK during the 60s and 70s, taking a traditionally serious genre, and turning it into a comical genre for the sake of it, and also because someone thought that the audiences were taking the "serious genre" too "seriously".Whatever.If you like irreverent Japanese cinema (and I really don't, at least not this particular film), then give this thing a try. Otherwise anime offerings which have the same film making style and can ramp up the humor, should offer better options for the same sub-genre.Watch at your own peril.

I love this move because it is unique. Somehow, this sentence says it all. This is a unique movie and very original, even it is somehow a parody but also a serious one about Samurai movies. The whole movie is B&W and the actors are sometimes playing like in a 'silent movie' with strong, overdone expressions esp. Tamaki Ogawa. However this is not overdone and the movie itself is IMO far away from being too serious. In fact it is hilarious and fun to watch. I have to admit that for people who do not know very much about Japanese culture, this movie might be boring and senseless. This is not a martial arts movie even there are some fighting scenes in this movie. They story is told using a valuable sword stolen by the incredible Tomoyasu Hotei, who acts in this movie as the villan and wrote most of the music for this movie too. He also wrote the IMO unforgettable music for the big battle in 'Kill Bill 1'.If you can lower your expectations and let yourself dive into the story, watched some Kurosawa Samurai movies before and share a general addiction to Asian culture, you should give this movie a try and I believe, you will be positively surprised. For the real lover of Japanese movies this DVD comes in the only way, it is suitable for the fan: Original Japanese language with English subtitles. If this annoys you, put it back on the shelf.For all others, highly recommended. It features a wonderful love story, some criminal story and how the underdog Samurai can beat the master Samurai in the best sense of a drama.For me, this is an absolute gem and stands for it's own. As I wrote at the beginning: Unique.I am writing this here, because you can't buy this movie in Germany but I can order it in the US and I highly appreciate that I can do this and Amazon is just a very reliable company. I am not paid to write this, it reflects my true opinion :-)

The plot is as follows. A samurai clan entrusts a talented but unknown ronin to guard their ceremonial sword. He ends up stealing the lovely weapon for his own use. Upon hearing this, a young swordsman and his two best friends go on a journey to retrieve the sword. Their first confrontation causes each of the three warriors to take a path separate from the other.The plot is fairly basic (the stealing of the sword reminds me of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), but the way director Hiroyuki Nakano sees it is very original. Shot mostly in black and white, it's an obvious way to get the audience to appreciate his artistic vision.Perhaps my favorite aspect of "Samurai Fiction" is the musical score, composed by Tomoyasu Hotei, who you may know as "...the guy that made that song from Kill Bill" (Battle Without Honor or Humanity, the part where O-Ren is entering the house of blue leaves). Every fight scene and many simply well directed scenes are pulled from 1696 to modern day with hard rock or techno anthems.This is a must have DVD for any martial arts fans, particularly those looking to see where Quentin Tarintino got "Kill Bill" from.

I bought this 1998 Japanese film encouraged by good reviews - but I was terribly disappointed! Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.PRECISION: this is a Region 1 NTSC DVD. It will not play on European Region 2 equipment.In feudal Japan a wandering samurai named Rannosuke Kazamatsuri stole a precious sword. Inukai Henshiro, a young samurai from the clan to which this treasure belongs, goes on a quest to find the thief and recover the stolen property - but this is a perilous task, as Kazamatsuri is a skilled swordsman and a very huge, powerful man... On his way Henshiro will meet an old master at arms, who may be one of few people able to teach him how to defeat his colossal enemy...This film is a very strange thing and I couldn't really decide what it is. Is it a kind of comedy parodying the clichés of samurai films? Or is it maybe a "real" samurai film trying to parody a comedy? Or is it something else still? The one thing which is certain for me, is that I was unable to find any humour in it... Of course, it is not entirely serious either, but it is definitely NOT funny. In all the film there was only ONE scene which was a nice joke - and it lasts like 5 seconds...The story and the actions of main protagonists didn't make any sense for me: why did Kazamatsuri steal the sword when he clearly has no use for it and doesn't even care for money? Why is the old master at arms seemingly so opposed to violence when Henshiro wants to fight, but has no problem with violence at all when he himself faces this colossal foe? What is the POINT of all this story?This film also mixes styles - parts of it are in colour but most of it is in black and white. OK, granted, this gives a couple of nice scenes - but definitely not enough to make it a good film. The inclusion of rock music in a samurai film was supposed to make it special - but for me it didn't work AT ALL!Even if at 111 minutes it is not all that long, this film bored me and I had to fast forward some moments. I really didn't enjoy it much. Two stars just for technical originality. AVOID!

I just wanted to add that this is a thoroughly enjoyable and endearing film in which humour and pathos are applied by the spade-load. Its perfectly acted, some of the cinematography is amazing, for example an overhead view of a sword duel was novel and illuminating-you can see what those razor sharp swords are actually doing! Its a shame that its not available in a format in which more Europeans could enjoy it. Highly recommended, buy now!

Zum Inhalt des Films bitte Googeln. Er ist sehr "schräg" und ist sicherlich nicht für die breite Masse bestimmt, hat aber was. Für Fans ist er allerdings ein Muss mit einigen guten Kampfszenen und Musikuntermalung der etwas anderen Art.Sowohl die Ton- und Untertitelauswahl sind gut für eine DVD, allerdings gilt das, auch aufgrund des verwendeten Bildformat, leider nicht für die Bildqualität. Die Auflösung ist leider sogar schlechter, als meine Aufnahme von ARTE per DVD Rekorder auf der der Film (mit Untertitel) vor einigen Jahren lief.Für alle, die den Film bereits haben und auf die deutsche Synchronisation verzichten können, ist der Kauf kein Muss. Alle anderen, die den Film ihr eigen nennen wollen, haben ohnehin keine Wahl.Für Fans zu empfehlen.

Um Verwechslungen zu vermeiden, möchte ich zunächst darauf hinweisen, dass ich hier nur die Version der Intro asiaedition bewerte. Wie andere Veröffentlichungen aussehen, weiß ich leider nicht, wäre aber dankbar für Hinweise.Das Bild der DVD ist nicht anamorph, so dass man auf 16:9 Fernsehern nur ein kleines Fenster hat, in dem sich das Bild befindet. Das kann an natürlich aufzoomen, aber der Verlust an Auflösung ist dementsprechend, zumal die Auflösung sowieso schon sehr gering erscheint. Hinzu kommt, dass die DVD mit dem veralteten Zeilensprungverfahren arbeitet, das Bild also nicht progressiv ist und somit in den Bewegungen pixelig ruckelt.So kann man den Film wirklich nicht anschauen. Lieber den Kauf sein lassen und nach Alternativen suchen.

Im Gegensatz zu einigen vorherigen Rezensenten bin ich der Meinung, das dies sehr wohl ein Samurai-Film ist. Allerdings einer, den man nur dann genießen kann, wenn man den japanischen Humor mag, aber das trifft ja auch auf die Filme von Kurosawa zu.Der Film ist ironisch bis an die Schmerzgrenze und zeigt dadurch, das die edlen Samurai eben auch nur eines waren: Menschen mit menschlichen Schwächen und Unsicherheiten. Der Film lebt sicher nicht von den Kampfszenen, sondern von seinem Humor, den schnellen Bildern, den absurden Dialogen und der rockigen Unterlegung mit Musik.Aber auch die typischen Samurai-Fragen werden aufgeworfen:- warum töten wir einen Gegner und was geschieht mit mir, wenn ich es tue/ wie verändert mich das- Ehre und (eigener) Tod- warum kämpfen, warum bedingungslose Unterordnung unter seinen HerrnDie Handlung ganz kurz: Ronin stiehlt Schwert des Shogun, wird vom Fürstensohn und weiteren Samurai verfolgt, Fürst schickt ausserdem Ninjas hinterher, um seinen Sohn zu schützen. Beim ersten Kampf kommt ein Samurai um, der Fürstensohn wird von einem Kampfkunstmeister, der dem Kamf entsagt hat, gerettet und verliebt sich während der Genesung in die Tochter des Meisters. Der Ronin wird derweil von einer Spielhausbesitzerin im Nachbarort angeheuert und macht dort seinen Job. Ab jetzt entwickelt sich alles auf den Endkampf zwischen Ronin und Meister zu, der zunächst mit Steinen (Kampfkunstmeister will nicht töten) dann aber doch mit dem Schwert ausgeführt wird. Aber was den Film eigentlich sehenswert macht, spielt sich zwischen den Menschen ab.Zum Beispiel zeigt der Film eine Liebesgeschichte, die ich nur entzückend nennen kann, auch wenn dieses Wort eigentlich nicht zu meinem üblichen Wortschatz zählt und ich Liebesgeschichten nicht mag.Der typische Kontrast in japanischen Filmen: man hat gerade noch ein Lachen über einen gelungenen oder absurden Witz auf den Lippen, das durch plötzliche rohe Gewalt weggewischt wird, ist auch hier zu finden, aber nicht so extrem, das die Gewalt ein sinnloser Selbstzweck wird.Man sollte, wie auch schon die Vorrezensenten sagten, zumindest einmal das Original ansehen, nicht die synchronisierte Fassung.Ich empfehle diesen Film jedem, der japanische Filme mag.