Knowing never to take thwhtguardian's recommendations lightly, I checked out Orochi (1925) today.



As great a fan as I am of 1920s foreign films, I'd never seen one from Japan before and was amazed by both the technical and choreographic achievement of that climactic battle. Both the actors and the camera did some truly amazing things, and I love that, in all the fights leading up to that one, the protagonist fought bare-handed, so that finally drawing out the sword for a battle against an entire city was all the more thrilling in contrast.

However, I was not a fan of the story. Apparently, the filmmaker was forced to change the film's name from the Japanese word for "Outlaw" to the Japanese word for "Snake" out of concern that an outlaw should be celebrated as a hero, but that's exactly what this film is -- revering a character who acts purely out of rashness and self-interest and is, in all ways, a thug and bully, yet the narration persists in explaining that none of what happens to him is his own fault; there is no justice in the world. It's like the Japanese version of Scarface, only instead of having the villain own who he is, he continually makes excuses for it. Seems the exact opposite of what I've come to understand that honor means to the Japanese, especially in Samurai culture.

But it's a well done film, and that climactic battle was astonishing. Thanks much for the recommendation, thwhtguardian!

Without even looking at this thread I coincidentally watched the Samurai Trilogy over the last two nights. 

I don't like the first film much either though it starts off promising enough with the Battle of Sekigahara. 

The two 'Duel' pics are fantastic though and worth getting through the previous 90 minutes of back story so you can get a better grasp on the context.

The end of Ganryu Island is pretty good isn't it?

One thing that did disappoint though was the films were shot in Eastman Color and not the more lavish Technicolor. There was a little sheen and opulence missing because of that. I'm sure this is more pronounced when watching on Blu Ray as opposed to DVD.

Zatoichi 1: The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)



An emphatic ho-hum on this one. While the concept of a poor blind masseuse who taught himself to become Japan's finest swordsman as a means of getting people to leave him alone is enticing, that's pretty much all this film has to offer. There's an elaborate and yet thoroughly uninteresting plot about a war between two gambling houses, plus a ton of the standard samurai flick cliches (to which this film does no justice). Add to that low quality directing and a thoroughly uncharismatic lead actor, and I'm left wondering how the heck this film spawned twenty five (yes, twenty five) sequels.

Rashomon (1950)

Feudal Japan meets a courtroom drama meets the existential quest for goodness and truth. Obviously, when it comes to Kurosawa, you can expect less emphasis on the swords and more emphasis on the souls they represent. While this is not my favorite Kurosawa film (side note: I still need to see Ran), the acting is phenomenal, and (in keeping with what I've come to expect from Kurosawa) the cinematography is some of the finest I have ever seen. Add to that a possessed medium speaking from beyond the dead and the most brutally honest sword fight in all of cinema history (complete with stumbling, crying, and abject fear of killing as much as of dying), and you've got yourself one hell of a viewing experience.

I apologize in advance for all the screen shots, but I just HAD to share these:

I'm thinking maybe the subtitles on mine must have been different, and the film perhaps edited because it looks the same to me. It was a dollar store DVD I picked up so it's certainly within the realm of possibility, and certainly interesting that one could use the same footage to tell a different story.

Maybe when they renamed it, they also changed the subtitles to make him a clear hero instead of a renegade. It's also clear that the version I linked to has been altered over time. There's no way all that additional narration was present in the form of a voice-over in 1925. So I'd be curious to know which of our versions is closer to the original.

Yep. One thing I have been able to learn about this film was that it was the first to stage Samurai battles in real-time as opposed to Kabuki-like slow motion. Man, did they succeed.