Samurai Rebellion (1967) Dir. Masaki Kobayashi
Ugh, I'm to old for this s***.
This movie falls into the same group of movies as Sunrise did for me, i.e. a movie with a simplistic story than none the less is expertly told. Samurai rebellion is the story of a samurai who must decide wheter to follow his lord's command or follow his own conscience, even if that entails putting his entire clan in jeopardy.
Toshiro Mifune plays a samurai on the hunt for a wife to his eldest son. When his lord wishes to make the son a husband to one of his misstresses that has disspleased him (even after she gave him a son), Mifune tries to decline, but find his lord adamant. He therefore accepts this dubious honor and to his great joy, finds that she makes a fine wife for his son. Fate's fickle though, and when the heir apparent dies, Mifune realizes that his new daughter-in-law is mother to the new heir and also that his lord will want her back, somthing neither of them wants.
With great acting from Mifune and as well from Go Kato (eldest son) and Yoko Tsukasa (son's wife), this samurai movie is two parts domestic drama and one part solid action. The sets look great (especially the courtyard of Mifune's house and the field of tall grass where the final showdown takes place) and the costuming's top notch. I've allways had a soft spot for Kurosawa's
Ran (1985) just because of how the coloring of the costumes stood out so vividly when two forces came together on a battlefield, but here, even it black and white, you can clearly see who's to be rooted for by the use of lighter fabrics throughout the protagonists and the darker shades of the antagonist (nothing new, I know, but it stood out for me here for some reason). Kobayashi's an excellent director with an feeling for the fight scenes in particular, I think. The climactic final fight scene in the tall grass made me think of the raptors in
The lost world (1997) and how they so easely could use the vegetation to their advantage. The same thing happens here with Mifune jumping through the grass and slicing guard left and right (even if to start with felt more like gophers sticking their heads out of their burrows).
He also has an eye for the single combat stuff, as shown in the duel between Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai. Starting with a low shot as the two circle each other and then cutting to show them clashing. No five minute sparring with rapiers here, just attack and separate to determine what damage's been done.
The meat of the story though, is the interactions of the Sasahara clan and how they handle meeting and living with a woman they at first don't know. Mifune's own marriage was never what you could call harmonious, with his wife allway complaining and criticizing all he does. When she acts the same twoards her new daughter-in-law though, she takes it with a smile, but otherwise she seems sad. She's had a hard life, Yagoro Sasahara tells his father, and speaks of an evening when he himself asked his new wife why she felt so sad. What follows is one of two great performances given by Yoko Tsukasa in this movie. She pours heart and soul into telling and acting out her emotions, somthing only trumped by Mifune later in the movie.
Great movie, so far one of (if not the) favourite in this hof.