Hiroshi Inagaki’s SAMURAI series is a trilogy much like LORD OF THE RINGS, where the story arch travels the length of all three films. Takezo (Toshiro Mifune, THE SEVEN SAMURAI) is a wild kind of man, who wants to become a samurai so that he can be famous and inflate his ego. Takezo convinces his best friend Matahachi (Rentaro Mikuni, KWAIDAN) to join the war, despite Matahachi’s engagement to Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa, MR. PU).
Separated from the other soldiers, Takezo and Matahachi end up in the care of 16-year-old Akemi (Mariko Okada, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON) and her mother Oko (Mitsuko Mito, UGETSU), who make money by salvaging valuable items from dead samurai. As the film progresses, Takezo ends up the prisoner/student of monk Takuan Osho (Kuroemon Onoe, SAMURAI 2: DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE).
The story is simple, but the emotions are complex. The film deals with issues of pride, abandonment, love and redemption. Takezo’s journey through the film is an emotional one as well as a physical one. He discovers that fighting for fame is less fulfilling than it is to fight for love. The film has a fascinating poetry to it in regards to how we are whom we are because of where we came from. Both Takezo and Matahachi wouldn’t have ended up where they end up if they were not the kind of people they were in the beginning.
The ending of this film reminded me of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, where the conclusion works for the story, but you can’t wait for the rest of the story to be told. It makes you excitedly wait to see the final two films in the series, because the first film has truly made me care about the characters and how their futures will turn out. This is a wonderful picture that deserved its Oscar for best foreign film.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
