Chushingura - Hana no maki yuki no maki (1962)

Director:

Hiroshi Inagaki

Writers:

Shoraku Miyoshi (play)
Senryu Namiki (play)

Release Date:

3 October 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History

Plot:

A young lord attempts to combat the official corruption endemic to the Shogunate, only to be placed in an impossible conflict of duties...

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Jidai Geki | Remake | Based On Historical Events | 47 Ronin

Cast

Koshiro Matsumoto	...	Chamberlain Kuranosuke Oishi (as Matsumoto Koshiro IX)
Yûzô Kayama	...	Lord Naganori Asano
Tatsuya Mihashi	...	Yasubei Horibe
Akira Takarada	...	Gunpei Takada
Yosuke Natsuki	...	Kinemon Okano
Makoto Satô	...	Kazuemon Fuwa
Tadao Takashima	...	Jyujiro Kan
Seizaburô Kawazu	...	Asano Official
Takashi Shimura	...	Hyobu Chishaka
Daisuke Katô	...	Kichiemon Terasaka
Keiju Kobayashi	...	Awajinokami Wakisake (Lord Awaji)
Ryo Ikebe	...	Chikara Tsuchiya
Setsuko Hara	...	Riku Oishi
Yôko Tsukasa	...	Aguri Asano
Reiko Dan	...	Okaru

Also Known As:

47 Ronin
47 Samurai (USA)
Chushingura: 47 Samurai (USA) (reissue title)
The 47 Ronin (Australia)
The Loyal 47 Ronin

Runtime:

206 min | Japan:208 min | USA:100 min (second release) | USA:108 min (first release) | USA:204 min (1966 re-issue) | USA:207 min (1966 re-release)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M

Company:

Toho Company

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ronin (1998)

A beautiful tribute to Japan's most famous true story

In 1962, Toho Ltd. released "Chuchingura" as an anniversary piece. At nearly four hours' length, it almost requires a devotion to Japanese cinema and the culture's many nuances to appreciate. But it is exquisitely filmed in Toho Vision, right down to the fluttering cherry blossoms and snow tumbling from trees, and the costumes, sets and makeup win my awards for best I've seen from Tokyo. Having been to Japan and studied Japanese literature and language in the '60s, it was fairly easy for me to get into the story. Indeed, it has been written about many times, and anyone who has read one of the stories should be able to follow the plot. Like many epic films, it begins to bog down in the center, as the ronin go their separate ways and take up all matters of industry and living conditions, fall in love or not, waiting for the day of retribution. We are led up to that point with the unfolding of the drama behind the story. The fast-paced conclusion brings it all together and ends, rather abruptly I thought, with a narrative about what happens once the deed was fulfilled. It's a story of loyalty and courage to the nth degree. The bushido code is one of Japan's most revered cultural elements and it is celebrated here. If you can tolerate the length, the film is definitely worth a look, if for no other reason than to understand more about what the Japanese samurai life in the 18th and 19th centuries was like.