Shinnojo Mimura is a low ranking samurai. His job is to sample the food prepared for his clan’s feudal Lord. Shinnojo is married and looks forwards to the day he can start his own kendo dojo. His life suddenly turns upside down when he gets ill from tasting a dish prepared for his Lord. Although the dish wasn’t poisoned intentionally, the Red Tsubugai shellfish was cooked out of season and turned toxic. A few days later Shinnojo recovers but his eyesight does not. The young samurai is now blind.

His wife, Kayo, must now try to take to care of Shinnojo’s psyche, as well as to make sure they are financially stable. She is pressured by his family to ask for the favor of a high ranking official who has shown interest for her in the past. When Kayo visits Shimada Toya, Shimada agrees to ask the feudal lord’s help but in return Kayo must become his lover.

Although Shinnojo’s spirit begins to heal, he feels that something is amiss with his wife. His aunt then tells him about a rumor concerning his wife and an unknown Samurai. Eventually Shinnojo has his male servent follow Kayo around town. The truth comes out about the illicit relationship between Kayo and the higher ranking Samurai. Shinnojo then learns from other Samurais that Shimada Toya did nothing to help him gain favor from the clan’s Lord. Now a blind man but still a Samurai in spirit, Shinnojo challenges the expert swordsmen to a duel to the death for love and honor.

What stands out the most would have been the casting of JPop singer Takuya Kimura in the starring role as Shinnojo. I’m not up to date on Asian pop music, so it came as a big surprise to learn that this was the singer’s first starring role in a film. His JPop band SMAP seems to be one of the most popular in Asia. It should be noted that in a nice gesture to other more accomplished actors, Takuya Kimura declined his nomination for the best actor award at the 30th Japan Academy Awards. The Shinnojo character was younger than the other main characters in the prior Yoji Yamada films, which added a fresh air to the somewhat familiar by now formula. There was a childlike playfulness in Shinnojo combined with his more traditional noble Samurai mannerisms which translated into a charismatic main character that was instantly likeable. If I had to nitpick, I would say the scene where Kayo disclosed her affair to Shinnojo failed to convey the boiling anger that should have been simmering inside of Shinnojo, which was apparent in his grip at least, as his hands clenched through the rice paper sliding doors. That would have been my only small complaint in an otherwise VERY strong performance.

His counterpart, Rei Dan, also makes her first appearance on the bigscreen as the devoted housewife Kayo. Although there was somewhat of a generic blandness to her performance, nevertheless she didn’t distract from the film. Takashi Sasano, who played the servant Tokuhe, shined in his supporting role. He was able to provide a perfect mixture of comedy relief and crankiness that resulted in a well deserved best supporting role award at the same 30th Japan Academy Awards.

Stylistically the movie has a similar austere feel as the Twilight Samarai and The Hidden Blade. For the casual viewer one could mistake Yoji Yamada’s style as being plain or even bland, yet with such a dramatic script, the contrast in style between the zen like visuals and the melodramatic tendencies of the script formed a perfect balance. In lesser hands, you would probably have more of the over the top melodrama that would most likely cheapen the effects of such a dignified film.

Love And Honor is an impressive film that would be my personal favorite out of the Samurai trilogy directed by Yoji Yamada. The movie gets better and better with each passing minute, until you are literally left gripping the armchairs of your seat while watching the final duel between the now blind Shinnojo and the lecherous Shimada Toya. Highly recommended.