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Hana

Original title: Hana yori mo naho
  • 2006
  • 2h 7m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
Hana (2006)
Trailer for this samurai tale
Play trailer0:31
1 Video
4 Photos
ComedyDrama

A troubled young samurai seeks revenge for the death of his father.A troubled young samurai seeks revenge for the death of his father.A troubled young samurai seeks revenge for the death of his father.

  • Director
    • Kore-eda Hirokazu
  • Writer
    • Kore-eda Hirokazu
  • Stars
    • Jun'ichi Okada
    • Rie Miyazawa
    • Arata Furuta
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.6/10
    1.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Kore-eda Hirokazu
    • Writer
      • Kore-eda Hirokazu
    • Stars
      • Jun'ichi Okada
      • Rie Miyazawa
      • Arata Furuta
    • 14User reviews
    • 21Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 2 nominations

    Videos1

    Hana: The Tale of a Reluctant Samurai
    Trailer 0:31
    Watch Hana: The Tale of a Reluctant Samurai

    Photos

    Hana (2006)
    Hana (2006)
    Jun'ichi Okada in Hana (2006)
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    Top cast

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    Jun'ichi Okada
    Jun'ichi Okada
    • Aoki Souzaemon aka 'Soza'
    Rie Miyazawa
    Rie Miyazawa
    • Osae
    Arata Furuta
    Arata Furuta
    • Sadashiro
    Jun Kunimura
    Jun Kunimura
    • Isekan
    Katsuo Nakamura
    Katsuo Nakamura
    • Shigehachi
    Tadanobu Asano
    Tadanobu Asano
    • Jubei Kanazawa
    Yoshio Harada
    Yoshio Harada
    • Junai Onodera
    Teruyuki Kagawa
    Teruyuki Kagawa
    • Jirozaemon Hirano
    Tomoko Tabata
    • Onobu
    Yui Natsukawa
    Yui Natsukawa
    • Oryo
    Renji Ishibashi
    Renji Ishibashi
    • Shozaburo Aoki
    Ryûhei Ueshima
    • Otokichi
    Yûichi Kimura
    • Magosaburo
    Seiji Chihara
    • Tomekichi
    Ryo Kase
    Ryo Kase
    • Sodekichi
    • (as Ryô Kase)
    Susumu Terajima
    Susumu Terajima
    • Kichiemon Terasaka
    Christopher Bevins
    Christopher Bevins
    • Jubei
    • (English version)
    • (voice)
    • …
    Majken Bullard
    • Shinnosuke
    • (English version)
    • (voice)
    • Director
      • Kore-eda Hirokazu
    • Writer
      • Kore-eda Hirokazu
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      The fourth film directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu to feature Susumu Terajima.

    User reviews14

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Are we ready for a cowardly samurai?
    In 'Hana' Koreeda has turned from modern times to make another samurai-going-out-of-style movie, set in 1701 when "sword fighting has flown out of fashion with the wind." The film focuses on the cute Soza, played by boy-band singer Junichi Okada, who's supposed to avenge the death of his samurai father (embarrassingly, in a fight over a go game rather than any battle), but would rather play go himself, soak in a hot tub, or teach neighborhood kids writing than practice his swordplay. Hana questions the very validity of revenge and war but unfortunately does so with an inept fighter and even a coward as a hero. Why this isn't a good way of presenting alternatives to warlike philosophy is obvious: a hero is needed who can say "I can do it but I choose not to," rather than one who must say, "I can't, so I better not." Despite the film's considerable charm in presenting a variety of colorful characters and incidents -- abetted by excellent acting, a realistic period tenement setting, and fresh-sounding western renaissance music -- its main character becomes an embarrassment and a disappointment rather than a revelation. Unfortunately the young star's appealing sweetness seems a mockery. As Mark Shilling of Japan Times has commented, Okada is "too handsome and cool to be a sympathetic coward. Too bad Bill Murray isn't 20 years younger -- and Japanese." Moreover (as Shilling also says) 'Hana's' lively incidents are rather meandering, don't interact very well, and don't add up to climactic moments: the story line "lacks anything major." The natural impulse is to want the climax of a real revenge, the one Sozo is supposed to enact. Defeating such conventional expectations, the film feels longer than it is.

    It may be that Koreeda, whose films have created a unique mood, means for 'Hana' to make us uncomfortable, and the colorful characters and rude toilet jokes are an intentional effort to put us off our guard. Certainly when the moment first comes when Soza is beaten up by a local punk in pink, Sodekichi (Ryo Kase), it's horrifying and demoralizing because Soza up to then has been not only immensely simpatico, but a guy with a worthwhile function in the tenement house (nagaya) village -- which Koreeda has departed from film tradition in making realistically rickety. Soza says he's in the shabby place because (as introductory titles have told us) samurais are frequently undercover in such locations at the moment. When he learns his revenge-object, Kanazawa Jubei, is living nearby, it turns out one of his informants and café-pals knew it all along and the latter advises him to say nothing. "This samurai revenge thing is out of style," he adds. Besides, "with your skills" (i.e., the lack of them), "you're doomed." 'Hana' makes this sort of point too bluntly and repetitiously.

    The setting, which compares (as Shilling notes) to that of Kurosawa's memorable flop 'Do-des-ka-den,' is a lively but pathetic community where people live selling scraps -- and their own excrement, sold for fertilizer to a landowner, is worth more than the fruit of their labors. It's a world where indignity is a constant, in which Soza's humiliations seem almost normal.

    The interest of 'Hana,' despite its not being Koreeda at his best, is that it reflects contemporary Japanese demoralization -- a deep sense of the loss of traditional values as well as an equally strong sense of personal uncertainty in the old areas of machismo that once were strong. And it does this in a deceptively traditional-looking framework that shows how seductive and unavoidable Japanese tradition still remains. In that way, the director has been able to manufacture the same troubling unease that made his more powerful 'Nobody Knows' so riveting and disturbing. This still feels like a distinct misstep for the filmmaker -- but he has seemed capable of doing something completely different almost every time -- and no doubt what comes next will be a surprise, perhaps a more exciting one.

    Shown as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival 2007.
    helpful•14
    9
    • Chris Knipp
    • May 1, 2007

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • May 6, 2007 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Official sites
      • Official site
      • Official site (South Korea)
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • Hana: The Tale of a Reluctant Samurai
    • Filming locations
      • Kyoto, Japan
    • Production company
      • Shochiku
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $566,097
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      2 hours 7 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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