Chushingura
(1962)
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Chushingura
(1962)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Yûzô Kayama | ... |
Lord Naganori Asano
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Tatsuya Mihashi | ... | |
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Akira Takarada | ... |
Gunpei Takada
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Yôsuke Natsuki | ... |
Kinemon Okano
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Makoto Satô | ... | |
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Tadao Takashima | ... |
Jyujiro Kan
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Seizaburô Kawazu | ... |
Asano Official
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| Takashi Shimura | ... |
Hyobu Chishaka
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Daisuke Katô | ... | |
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Keiju Kobayashi | ... | |
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Ryô Ikebe | ... |
Chikara Tsuchiya
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| Setsuko Hara | ... | ||
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Yôko Tsukasa | ... |
Aguri Asano
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Reiko Dan | ... |
Okaru
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Yuriko Hoshi | ... |
Otsuya
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A young lord attempts to combat the official corruption endemic to the Shogunate, only to be placed in an impossible conflict of duties. He refuses to bribe a Chancelor who is responsible for teaching him the etiquette to receive the Shogun's envoys. The Chancelor goads him into drawing his sword when the envoys are present, a crime punishable by death. The young lord's vassals are ordered to break up his estate, and his samurai to disband. To obey the Shogun, they must follow orders, but to be loyal to their master and to elemental fairness, they must revenge him. The conflict of obligations is the essential dilemma of Japanese society, which is why this is their national epic. The story is richly woven. Worth seeing just for the supremely gorgeous art works, buildings and costumes of 18th century Japan. Written by Mike O'Brien <obrien@hevanet.com>
Inagaki's Chushingura is a big-screen film. The colours are vivid, the composition meticulous, and the various characters disappear for long periods requiring concentration to remember who's who. Modern audiences used to more nuanced characters in period pieces (such as The Assassination of Jesse James, or Twilight Samurai) might find this straight telling of the tale in undiluted terms slightly twee. Indeed, Chusha Ichikawa as the villain Kira is the film's major flaw, a pantomime villain, lecherous and mean-spirited, who seems to be mugging it up for people in the back row. Dated characterisation aside, the telling of this tale earns your tears at the end as the worthy assailants troop off to Edo castle to meet their unhappy destiny, the actual moment of seppuku relegated to a final credit-roll.
More modern renditions of Chushingura have focused on the inner human conflict, the lovers thwarted by demands of loyalty and honour. Inagaki unashamedly keeps his narrative on surface events, preferring to wow the audience with scale and spectacle. Japanese audiences come to the film the way Brits come to the tale of Robin Hood, with an inner template of longing for values cherished but long gone. Their eyes are already moist in the ticket queue. Western audiences less familiar with the tale of the 47 ronin might get a little lost in the narrative, but the pace of events and elegiac sense of living a life for a higher purpose is conveyed to universal appeal. Excellent music score.