Bushi no ichibun (2006)

A look at the relationship between a young blind samurai (Kimura) and his wife, who will make a sacrifice in order to defend her husband's honor.

Director:

Yôji Yamada

Writers:

Shûhei Fujisawa (novel), Yôji Yamada

Stars:

Takuya Kimura, Rei Dan, Mitsugorô Bandô

12 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Takuya Kimura	...	Shinnojo Mimura
Rei Dan	...	Kayo Mimura
Mitsugorô Bandô	...	Toya Shimada
Takashi Sasano	...	Tokuhei
Kaori Momoi	...	Ine Hatano
Nenji Kobayashi	...	Sakunosuke Higuchi
Ken Ogata	...	Shinnojo's fencing instructor
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Makoto Akatsuka
Toshiki Ayata	...	Kanjuro Takigawa
Z. Charles Bolton	...	Man B (voice)
Duncan Brannan	...	Hori / Senior Chief (voice)
Cole Brown	...	Sensei (voice)
Chris Burnett	...	Shinsuke (voice)
Colleen Clinkenbeard	...	Kayo Mimura (voice)
Justin Cook	...	Noge (voice)

Storyline

Shinnojo, a low level samurai, lives with his pretty, dutiful and loyal wife Kayo. He has come to find his position in a castle as a food-taster for a feudal lord to be boring and pointless, and talks about opening a kendo school open to boys of all castes where he can teach the use of the sword. Before he can act on his dream he becomes ill with a fever after tasting some sashimi made from shell fish, but an investigation reveals that the poisoning was not due to a human conspiracy, but a poor choice of food out of season. After three days he awakes but finds that the toxin from the food has blinded him. Kayo is summoned by Shinnojo's family to explain how the couple will survive. His uncle laments that he no longer knows anybody with influence in the castle, and asks Kayo if she knows of anybody. She relates how Toya Shimada, the chief duty officer in the castle and a samurai of high rank, offered to help and they tell her to act upon his offer of assistance. A message from the ...

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Plot Keywords:

samurai | being followed | warrior | jidai geki | based on novel | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan] Official site [United States]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

2 November 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

El catador de venenos

Filming Locations:

Osaka, Japan

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,234, 2 May 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$16,326, 7 April 2013

Company Credits

Production Co:

Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),Hakuhodo DY Media Partners,J Dream

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the film it is mentioned repeatedly that the main character of Shinnojo Miura receives a yearly stipend of 30 koku. During the Edo period of Japan a koku was a unit of measure that had the equivalent of one year's worth of rice for a person (approx. 150 kg). For a samurai 30 koku was a small salary and Shinnojo was thus of a low level. Incidentally, the title character from another of Yoji Yamada's films 'The Twilight Samurai' also receives a 30 koku stipend after having 20 koku deducted from his 50 koku salary to pay for his recently deceased wife's funeral.

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Quotes

Shinnojo Mimura: Be resolved you will both die. In that lies victory. Life lies in resolve for death.

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Connections

Follows Kakushi ken oni no tsume (2004)

User Reviews

the suffering of a good man

A low-ranking samurai, jaded with his dull daily routine, finds himself tested to the core when his food-tasting assignment leaves him blind.

Yoji Yamada's project exploring samurai in transition expands, having had an outing in Twilight Samurai. That movie had Hiroyuki Sanada in the starring role, and the constantly under-achieving Takuya Kimura was always going to be a hard sell in this role for some. However, he stands up competently here. Shinnojo wakens blind and immediately becomes suicidal. He is granted a healthy stipend of rice from the authorities, and the slow dawning of its true price inexorably works on Shinnojo, eventually becoming too much to bear. This delicately paced transition is plotted by Kimura's expressions, from self-loathing to acceptance to vengeful warrior, with loving husband always present.

Kaori Momoi parades her usual quirky genius, but Rei Dan as loving, loyal wife Kayo is the stand-out performance here. Kayo's burden proves equal to her husband's, and Dan earns our sympathy as the compromised spouse.

The film doesn't quite achieve the delicacy and pathos of Twilight Samurai, but it does add another dimension to the humanistic portrayal of the samurai that is Yamada's trope. For that reason alone, Love and Honour is worth checking out.