Category: Directed by Yamada Yôji
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Tedious samurai picture about honor and obligation; director Yamada tells it all in summary and set pieces, with thinly contrived manipulative actions to connect those set pieces and drive that summary. Nagase Masatoshi gives an excellent performance but it’s a depthless part. Based on stories by Fujiwara Shuhei, just like Yamada’s immediately previous film THE…
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Widowed samurai Sanada Hiroyuki has given up the warrior life to take care of his kids. Then childhood love Miyazawa Rie comes to town and things start changing. Good performances–especially from Sanada–but the narrative’s disjointed and suffers from a constant lack of focus. DVD, Blu-ray.Continue reading →
The Stop Button 