Samurai Rebellion (1967 - Masaki Kobayashi)
I think I have seen every Akira Kurosawa movie ever made, most of them many multiple times. But I'm ashamed to say there are lots of other Japanese directors I simply haven't gotten around to seeing much of their work. I had seen two films by Masaki Kobayashi:
Kwaidan (1964) and
Harakiri (1962). I think both are great, but due to the relative scarcity of much of Koayashi's work in the U.S., I had never gotten around to seeing anything else. An oversight I will soon correct, thanks to seeing the fantastic
Samurai Rebellion on the big screen last night.
What a great movie. One of the greatest actors of world cinema, Toshirô Mifune, stars as a quiet Samurai who is known as the greatest swordsman in the clan, but he has never risen to the highest ranks of his Lord's court, mostly due to his stoic nature. He has two sons and a bitch of a wife (Michiko Otsuka), a woman he was more or less forced to marry years ago and has never spent even ten minutes ever loving her, nor she him.
But his mid-level vassal's family is soon under much pressure when the Lord of the clan orders that his latest mistress, who recently bore him a son, leave the castle and marry Mifune's oldest boy (Go Katô). The rumor is that she went berzerk with jealousy over the Lord's newer mistress, attacking her and even slapping him. Because she is mother to one of only two heirs to the throne she is not killed or tortured, but essentially cast off and married to another. Mifune shows backbone against his master and tries to refuse the order, not wanting a wild woman in his house and more importantly not wanting his son to be in a loveless marriage like his. But it's no use trying to disobey. Eventually they agree and the former Lady of the castle becomes his daughter in law. As soon as they meet her (Yôko Tsukasa) they realize she is a good and gentle woman. She becomes an exceptional wife, they have a daughter together, and she and the son fall in true love with each other.
Then things get complicated. The Lord's elder son dies of illness, making his only other heir, the disfavored Yôko's child, next in line...which means she must leave the vassal's home and return to the castle as the Lord's Lady. Mifune, his son and his new daughter in law all are insulted by this turn of events and refuse. There is much poiliticking among the various levels of the clan, including Mifune's own relatives and wife, but the three stand steadfast to disobey such an unjust command, refusing to go through such emotional torment for another whim of a petty man...even if he is their Lord. Then things get bloody.
Samurai Rebellion (the Japanese title is
Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma Shimatsu, which translates as "Rebellion: Receive the Wife") is only two hours long, but it builds wonderfully. It's over an hour into it before the refusal of the order is formally made, and about a hour and forty minutes before the first sword is drawn in conflict. There's so much care and time spent establishing the characters with very good subtle work by Toshirô Mifune and Yôko Tsukasa especially. The tension just builds and builds. By the time they do start fighting, that too is terrific stuff. The last twenty minutes of the movie have a couple bloodbaths, including a duel of honor against the Samurai in the clan Mifune most respects (Tatsuya Nakadai) who knows Mifune is doing the right thing but finds himself obeying the rules of the society to try and stop his mentor. The last battle, with Mifune charging into the tall grass with his lone sword going against wave after wave of soldier, many with rifles, is magnificent.
I was really impressed with Masaki Kobayashi's direction. I knew from
Kwaidan that he had a good visual sensibility, and together with cinematographer Kazuo Yamada they compose frame after frame of beauty in crisp black & white. The trust Kobayashi showed in the story and the actors not to rush into the dice-'em-up stuff was impressive. I can see this being remade in Hollywood, transfering the setting to the world of '30s gangsters, but condensing all the meat of the story into the first twenty minutes and having a series of shoot outs and explosions for the remaining hour and forty minutes, without having the audience feel one thing for the characters.
I loved
Samurai Rebellion.
GRADE: A
*
BTW,
Samurai Rebellion has recently been released on R1 DVD by the Criterion Collection, available individually or in the "Rebel Samurai: Sixties Swordplay Classics" boxed set with
Sword of the Beast (1965 - Hideo Gosha),
Samurai Spy (1965 - Masahiro Shinoda) and
Kill! (1968 - Kihachi Okamoto).
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the other i will wait until it comes out on DVD. 
