Chushingura (1962)

After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.

Director:

Hiroshi Inagaki

Writer:

Toshio Yasumi (screenplay)

Stars:

Yûzô Kayama, Chûsha Ichikawa, Tatsuya Mihashi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Yûzô Kayama	...	Takuminokami Asano
Tatsuya Mihashi	...	Yasubei Horibe
Akira Takarada	...	Gunbei Takada
Yôsuke Natsuki	...	Kin'emon Okano
Makoto Satô	...	Kazuemon Fuwa
Tadao Takashima	...	Jûjirô Hazama
Seizaburô Kawazu	...	Chûzaemon Yoshida
Takashi Shimura	...	Hyôbu Chisaka
Daisuke Katô	...	Kichiemon Terasaka
Keiju Kobayashi	...	Awajinokami Wakisaka
Ryô Ikebe	...	Chikara Tsuchiya
Setsuko Hara	...	Riku
Yôko Tsukasa	...	Yôzen'in
Reiko Dan	...	Okaru
Yuriko Hoshi	...	Otsuya

Storyline

A young lord attempts to combat the corruption endemic to the Shogunate bureaucracy, only to be placed in an impossible conflict of duties. He refuses to pay the "customary" bribe expected by a Chancellor sent from the Shogunate to teach him the etiquette for receiving envoys from the Emperor. In revenge, the Chancellor goads the lord into drawing his sword when the envoys are present, a crime punishable by death. The young lord is forced to commit ritual suicide for this crime. His vassals are ordered to turn over their lords estate for confiscation, forbidden to take revenge for their lords death, then disbanded as a clan. To obey the Shogun, the lords former samurai must follow those orders, but to be loyal to oaths they swore to their lord and have justice, they must avenge him. This conflict of obligations is the primary dilemma in Japanese society, which is why this story is considered their national epic. The story is richly woven and the film worth seeing for the gorgeous art ...

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Plot Keywords:

last film for actress | employee employer relationship | suicide | samurai | revenge | 

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Taglines:

Japan's Supreme Screen Classic

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The final film of Setsuko Hara, before she announced her retirement in 1963.

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Alternate Versions

Three versions available: a short 108 minutes version, a 204 minute version (the most commonly screened, even in the USA), and a long (over 4 hours) version.

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Connections

Version of 47 Ronin (2013)

User Reviews

familiar tale gets unreconstructed treatment

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.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

3 October 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

Chushingura: 47 Samurai

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

207 min 100 min (second release) 108 min (first release) 204 min (1966 re-issue)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1