Jun

27

2007

Love And Honor

Posted by luna6

loveandhonor-poster.jpg
Movie : Love And Honor / Bushi no Ichibun / 武士の一分(いちぶん
Release Date : December 1, 2006
Country : Japan
Director : Yoji Yamada
Starring : Takuya Kimura, Rei Dan
Run Time : 122 Minutes
Editor Rating : 8.0
Users Rating: 7.75 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (16 votes)

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Plot Synopsis : 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.

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Movie Review : Yoji Yamada’s final episode in his Samurai trilogy is understated but nevertheless an immensely gripping success. Following his two previous Samurai flicks “Twilight Samurai” and “The Hidden Blade,” Yoji Yamada takes some of the similar elements from his prior two films and injects some new twists in his final and perhaps best Samurai installment.

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.

buy Love & Honor from YesAsia

Cast:
Takuya Kimura - Shinnojo Mimura
Rei Dan - Kayo Mimura

Mitsugoro Bando - Toya Shimada
Takashi Sasano - Tokuhei
Kaori Momoi - Ine Hatano
Nenji Kobayashi - Sakunosuke Higuchi
Ken Ogata
Makoto Akatsuka
Toshiki Ayata - Kanjuro Takigawa
Yasuo Daichi
Tokie Hidari
Koen Kondo
Nobuto Okamoto - Togo Hatano
Hiroko Tai

If You Like This Movie You May Enjoy : The Hidden Blade, Waiting In The Dark


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2006 Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews |

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8 Comments so far

  1. 8 Rei Says: July 23, 2007

    Bootleg DVDs.

    Unfortunately video shops in the Philippines only sell mainstream titles. More obscure films (Japanese, Korean, HK cinema, foreign films) can be obtained through bootleg format. Or you can order from yesasia.com - unfortunately we’ll be charged really high shipping charges + steep peso dollar conversion rate for a movie you’ll watch only once or twice.

  2. 7 Jimmy Says: July 23, 2007

    Whats PDVD? A typo or some kind of new format?

  3. 6 Rei Says: July 23, 2007

    Nortaku…

    I live in the Philippines and Love and Honor is already availabe in PDVD format, as well as Twilight Samurai, I can’t find Hidden Blade though.

  4. 5 nortaku Says: July 15, 2007

    Hi! I’m an avid fan of takuya kimura, not yet watch love and honor coz it’s not available here in the philippines i dont know why? i’d love to watch all her tv dramas but unfortunately only for of them i had watch, i admire his different characeristics in his dramas. I also watch other jpdrama but still his the best my idol!

  5. 4 Osa Says: June 28, 2007

    to Mr. luna6

    Thanks for your review.

    Just one note.

    Kimura Takuya is not only a pop-singer, more over, singing - is not his strongest point. First of all he is a very talented and experienced actor who’s playing in cinema and in TV dramas since early 90s. So don’t be surprised that Yamada had chosen him - the man already proved his acting skills. By the way, since 1996 Kimura won Japan TV Academy Award for best male lead in TV dramas seven (7) times.

    The fact that since mid 90-s Kimura almost didn’t play in cinema was more because of contractual matters and problems than anything else - at least if to believe Japan media. The same is about this declining of nomination story - it was not him who declined it, but his management company.

    I really hope to see Kimura more on big screen in fiture because he’s an excellent actor - very charismatic and versatile.

  6. 3 joeyfan3 Says: June 28, 2007

    I think it was a more a matter of he amount of work he does in general. Of all of the people in his group, he works “the least”, he tends to do a drama a year, he has a weekly radio show and that’s pretty much it, but he’s also the only one with a family. He’s worked more the past year or so. My understanding is that he wants to do more movies, so I hope we get to see a lot more of him on the big screen. He really is an excellent actor.

  7. 2 luna6 Says: June 27, 2007

    Elvyse thanks for pointing that out. I have watched and enjoyed Wong Kar Wai’s 2046
    so feel a little silly forgetting that fact. I guess one of these days I will check out some of the very interesting Japanese tv shows. Cheers …

  8. 1 elvyse Says: June 27, 2007

    Wasn’t Kimura in 2046 from Wong Kar-Wai? Hmm let’s check imdb… Yup he was, though he was not the leading role. But still it’s surprising that he resisted so long the sirens of the big screen. I guess he was satisfied with his TV career. Personally I have fond memories of Long Vacation.