A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars of the sixteenth century.
Eitarô Ozawa
- Tôbeias Tôbei
- (as Sakae Ozawa)
In the beginning of the springtime in the period of the Japanese Civil Wars of the Sixteenth Century in Lake Biwa in the Province of Omi, the family man farmer and craftsman Genjurô travels to Nagahama to sell his wares and makes a small fortune. His neighbor Tobei that is a fool man dreams on becoming a samurai, but he can not afford to buy the necessary outfit. The greedy Genjurô and Tobei work together manufacturing clay potteries, expecting to sell the pieces and enrich; however, their wives Miyage and Ohama are worried about the army of the cruel Shibata that is coming to their village and they warn their ambitious husbands. Their village is looted but the families flee and survive; Genjurô and Tobei decide to travel by boat with their wives and baby to sell the wares in a bigger town. When they meet another boat that was attacked by pirates, Genjurô decides to leave his wife and son on the bank of the river, promising to return in ten days. Genjurô, Tobei and Ohama raise a large amount but Tobei leaves his wife to buy the samurai outfit and seek fame and fortune. Meanwhile the female aristocratic Lady Wakasa and her servant ask Genjurô to bring her shopping to her fancy Kutsuki House. Sooner Genjurô and Tobei discover the price they have to pay for their ambition. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Top review
magical and moving
This holds a special place in my heart, and I still consider it to be absolutely one of the very greatest films ever made for adults. The work of a mature artist, it resonates with Buddhist practice, and is a profoundly moving tale of the suffering of the human condition, the violence of war, the possibilities of art uplifting the spirit, the possibilities of redemption of character. The closing scene is one of such deeply-felt compassion and understanding that it is almost frightening; it prefigures in a way the stunning and more personal close of the subsequent Mizoguchi film "Sansho the Baliff".
On a lighter level, it is an amusingly sly allegory of the actual history of Japan for the 20 or so years prior to 1953, where in the end the women, embittered (or dead) as a result of their men's quixotic quest for military glory or war-profiteering, entreat them to give up their misguided and destructive dreams, settle down, and get back to their real responsibilities.
Which they did.
Originally available on LaserDisc.
On a lighter level, it is an amusingly sly allegory of the actual history of Japan for the 20 or so years prior to 1953, where in the end the women, embittered (or dead) as a result of their men's quixotic quest for military glory or war-profiteering, entreat them to give up their misguided and destructive dreams, settle down, and get back to their real responsibilities.
Which they did.
Originally available on LaserDisc.
helpful•828
- notmicro
- May 2, 2004
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Recently viewed
Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.