Ballad (2009)

A movie examining a young boy's first encounter with true fear in his endless pursuit of courage.

Director:

Takashi Yamazaki

Writers:

Yoshito Usui (manga), Takashi Yamazaki (screenplay)

Stars:

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Yui Aragaki, Akashi Takei

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi	...	Matabee ijiri
Yui Aragaki	...	Princess Ren
Akashi Takei	...	Kawakami Shinichi
Michitaka Tsutsui	...	Kawakami Akira
Yui Natsukawa	...	Kawakami Misako
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mitsuru Fukikoshi
Kyôko Kagawa
Kenji Motomiya
Atsuo Nakamura
Kazuki Namioka
Takao Osawa	...	Takatora Ookurai
Yukiyoshi Ozawa
Akihiko Sai	...	Robbery
Yuki Saitô
Kunihiro Satô

Storyline

Shinichi runs away from his problems and the people he fears. When Shinichi prays to the great Kawakami oak tree for courage, he is plunged into ancient feudal Japan. He awakens in the province of Kasuga, in the midst of a battle. It is there he meets the great warrior samurai, called the Demon Ijiri. Ijiri is a worthy adversary in battle, but he proves to be a less successful lover. He has been in love with Princess Ren since his youth. She has fiercely loved him in return, rebuking offers of marriage in the hopes of marrying for love. When the powerful Lord Takatura asks for her hand in marriage, she dares not refuse him for the safety of her kingdom. When Shinichi's family emerges from the future to search for him, they bring stirring news to the town elders. The Kasuga province had never been recorded in history, and their enduring battles with other clans were seemingly fruitless. In light of this news, Princess Ren is relinquished of her duty to marry the formidable Lord ...

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Plot Keywords:

samurai | remake | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Romance

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Did You Know?

Trivia

This is director Takashi Yamazaki's first adaptation of a Japanese manga comic.

User Reviews

Crappy build up and almost no attachment but decent battle scenes

This is basically a fantasy style movie that the audience has to just go with it. There is some parts that doesn't make sense at all noticeably. The plot is about a modern time boy who goes back in time somehow to Sengoku-era japan and is in pursuit of courage while dealing with the dangers of his surrounding. In fact the movie switches from modern time to tenshou year 2 or something like that. The premise actually sort of reminded me of "The Forbidden Kingdom" except way more ridiculous because despite traveling back in time the story doesn't revolve around any mystical stuff. And this movie takes place in japan instead of china. But like I said it's a movie your just going to have to just go with or else your really going to dislike it, like the character Shinichi Kawakami's mother in the movie who just automatically accepts what is going on. When the movie takes place during Sengoku-era it just didn't seem all that realistic, it felt sort of like a live action Disney movie, even the interaction between characters seemed a bit childish at times. But than again this was probably aimed to be a family movie, and let's just say the acting was pretty terrible for this type of movie and even for a family movie. The problem about this movie is that it goes in a really cliché direction from the dialogue to the directions of the characters and everything else. And the movie just seemed to really drag with the characters just constantly infatuated with different time zones which is understandable but it's just really dragged on in this with nothing much going on. Even if it's a family movie little kids will probably get bored about 30 minutes into the movie, probably even less. There really isn't any good character development and the chemistry between the little boy and his surroundings wasn't developed very well either. The build up isn't good and there is little to almost not attachment. The plot is about a modern boy going back in time and building courage, but there is hardly a moment to build his courage and it's more leaning towards stupidity instead of bravery. Although it's a bummer the blend of the characters from modern time with the Sengoku-era time isn't done really well, I sort of enjoyed the last 50 or so minutes of the movie very slightly. Probably just because of the inspirational music and emotion even if the battle scenes got worse as it progressed.

4.5/10

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

5 September 2009 (Japan)

Also Known As:

BALLAD 名もなき恋のうた

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$19,380,161

Company Credits

Production Co:

Asatsu-DK, Futabasha, Robot Communications

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1