Aru kengo no shogai (1959)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Hiroshi Inagaki

Writers:

Hiroshi Inagaki (writer)
Edmond Rostand (play)

Release Date:

18 April 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

Edmund Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, transplanted to Japan. A poet-warrior with an oversized nose (matched only by his great heart) loves a lady...

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Based On Play

Cast

Toshirô Mifune	...	Heihachiro Komaki
Yôko Tsukasa	...	Lady Ochii aka Princess Chiyo
Akira Takarada	...	Jutaro [Jurota] Karibe
Keiko Awaji	...	Nanae
Seizaburô Kawazu	...	Nagashima
Kamatari Fujiwara	...	Rakuzo the sake seller
Akihiko Hirata	...	Akaboshi
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Okuni
Sachio Sakai
Yoshifumi Tajima
Akira Tani
Yutaka Sada
Senkichi Omura
Eisei Amamoto		(as Hideyo Amamoto)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Takashi Shimura
Haruo Tanaka
Kichijiro Ueda

Also Known As:

Life of an Expert Swordsman (literal title)
Samurai Saga

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

When Komaki (Toshirô Mifune) is telling Lady Ochii of the recent events at the end of the film, he mentions that on April 13th Miyamoto Musashi defeated Kojiro Sasaki in a duel. Mifune actually played Musashi in 4 different films: Kanketsu Sasaki Kojiro - Ganryu-to Ketto, Miyamoto Musashi, Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijôji no kettô and Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima (the last 3 movies comprising the Samurai trilogy).

Movie Connections:

Version of Cyrano de Bergerac (1945)

Excellent and beautiful,...but all too familiar

While I love Japanese versions of Western stories (such as Kurosawa's version of Macbeth--THRONE OF BLOOD), I guess I've just never been the biggest fan of the story of Cyrano. I have seen the José Ferrer and Gérard Depardieu versions and this film is at least as good--perhaps a little better due to its wonderful sense of artistry and the acting of Toshiro Mifune (though the other two did great jobs as well). The cinematography is exquisite and the poetic nature of the dialog is wonderful as well. But, because I knew exactly how the story would go, there was no suspense and this prevented the movie from receiving a higher score. THRONE OF BLOOD did receive a higher score because it was so unique in how it approached the material that it was almost a completely different story, but this one never veered far enough off course to make it more watchable. Excellent, but familiar.