SYNOPSIS:
Shinnojo Mimura, a low-ranking samurai is the official court
taster who ensures that the food prepared for the Emperor
has not been tampered with. His modest and peaceful life takes
a tragic turn when he is poisoned and loses his eyesight.
His wife Kayo becomes the lover of Shimada, a higher ranking
official, in order to save Shinnojo's court position. Shinnojo
discovers that Shimada is deceiving Kayo and has no plan to
help him. In order to gain back his honor and the love of
his life, the blind samurai challenges Shimada, a renowned
swordsman to a duel...
MOVIE REVIEW
We
still can’t get the image of Takuya Kimura, the charismatic
member of Japanese pop group, contorting his face in weird
shapes in the television commercial for Gatsby’s moving
rubber hair gel (search in on YouTube if you are one of the
ignorant ones who have never heard of this).
So
when Kimura shows up as a blind samurai in this movie, complete
with a solemn period getup, it took a while before we got
used to the seriousness of this Yoji Yamada-directed film.
Kimura
plays a samurai who has an unglamorous job of tasting food
for the Emperor to ensure that it has not been poisoned. During
an unfortunate incident, he becomes blind upon consuming poisoned
food. His dutiful wife resorts to getting close to a higher-ranked
samurai in order to save her husband’s job. When our
protagonist finds out, he goes all out to regain the family’s
honor.
Like
The Twilight Samurai and The
Hidden Blade before this, the final movie in Yamada’s
samurai trilogy (all based on novels by Shuuhei Fujisawa)
plays out slowly and steadily, never scurrying through plot
and character development. Like a fine Japanese cuisine, this
121-minute film is not meant to be rushed through. Take your
time to appreciate the fine performances of the whole cast,
enjoy the beautiful shot compositions and digest the honorable
messages behind the film.
Lighter
moments of the film come from the supporting characters of
the faithful house servant and the prying aunt who never fails
to milk some laughs whenever they appear on screen.
If
you have noticed the family friendly PG rating of the film,
you’d know there won’t be particularly violent
scenes where blood spurts like fountain and heads drop off
like coins. The swift and smooth samurai swordplay is as slow
and steady as the film itself. Besides, with a blind samurai,
you wouldn’t be expecting him to be too fast and furious,
would you?
If
you are in an impatient mood, go watch some no-brainer Hollywood
blockbuster instead.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains only a teaser trailer for
Royston Tan’s local movie 881.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The disc’s visual transfer is pristine enough to maintain
the steady cinematography of the film, and is presented in
its original Japanese audio track.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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