Genroku Chûshingura (1941)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Kenji Mizoguchi

Writers:

Kenichiro Hara (writer)
Seika Mayama (play)

Release Date:

March 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

Lord Asano resists a bribery attempt by a member of the Shogun's court. His honesty, however, is useless against the corruption of the administration...

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Jidai Geki | Propaganda | 47 Ronin | Based On Play

Cast

Yoshizaburo Arashi	...	Lord Takuminokami Asano
Utaemon Ichikawa	...	Tsunatoyo Tokugawa
Daisuke Katô	...	Fuwa Kazuemon
Chojuro Kawarasaki	...	Kuranosuke Oishi
Kunitaro Kawarazaki	...	Jurozaemon Isogai
Seizaburô Kawazu	...	Lord Etchumori Hosokawa
Mantoyo Mimasu	...	Kozunosuke Kira
Mitsuko Miura	...	Yosenin, Asano's wife
Kanemon Nakamura	...	Sukeimon Tomimori
Mieko Takamine	...	Omino, Isogai's fiancee

Also Known As:

47 Samurai
Chushingura
Loyal 47 of the Genroku Era
The 47 Ronin (USA)
The Loyal 47 Ronin

Runtime:

241 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

IMA Productions

Trivia:

Based on a true story, a version of which can be read in Jorge Luis Borges's short story collection, 'A Universal History of Infamy', under the title 'The Uncivil Teacher of Etiquette, Kotsuke no Suke'.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Aru eiga-kantoku no shogai (1975)

We've seen more simplistic and bombastic propaganda, to be sure

Yes, the pace is slow, yes the movie is long; especially to our eyes used to modern (?) movie-making of the recent years that knows only two rhythms, ultra-fast and ultra-ultra-fast. Yet the story of those 47 ronins, at least for those of us patient enough to enter it, to let themselves flow into it, is all in all very interesting and says a lot about 18th-century Japan. This movie is remarkably well constructed and acted and while the rhythm is slow, it is also implacable : the good side of having a slow rhythm is that you can eventually accelerate, something that ultra-fast doesn't allow.

But most of all, I notice this : for a film that was supposed to take place into a war-propaganda effort, I do find this tribute to the traditional virtues of the Japanese warrior to be remarkably sober in tone and almost completely devoid of any rhetoric. So, I am not at all surprised to learn that it was a commercial insuccess when it was released in 1941 Japan : for the spirit and inspiration of 'The 47 Ronins' are much too elevated to fit the ultranationalist hysteria of the times.