Shogun Samurai
Year: 1978
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Rating: 6.0
A.K.A The Yagyu Conspiracy
This period film based on real historical
figures certainly feels very conventional considering that the director is
Kinji Fukasaku. Of course, over his career he made films from every genre
at one time or another but he is most famous for his realistic Yakuza films
(the classic Yakuza Paper series among others), his off beat films like Black
Rose Madam, the sci-fi films Green Slime and Message from Space and of course
the film that made him famous in the west Battle Royale. This film feels
like a TV movie with its flat cinematography, raft of constantly changing
characters, scenes that go by in a flash and a narration that jumps in from
time to time to explain what the hell is going on. The film in fact led to
a TV series called the Yagyu Conspiracy that was 39 episodes and starred
many of the same actors. There was obviously much room for developing this
story as the film just doesn't have the time to do so even at 130 minutes.
The TV series gets an 8.7 rating on IMDB so something I would love to see.
As I said the main characters are all based
on historical figures but Fukasaku strays dramatically from the facts. In
the film the year is 1624 and the second Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada has just
passed away without naming an heir. He has two sons and the title of the
new Shogun should naturally go to his eldest son Iemitsu, but Iemitsu has
a large birthmark on his face and a stutter. So the other son Tadanaga was
much favored by his father and had been expected to be named. Both sons have
various factions supporting them and when it turns out the father was poisoned
battle lines are drawn. On Iemitsu's side is the Yagyu family whose father
has been the fencing instructor for Iemitsu since he was a youth. Two of
his children are played by familiar names - Sonny Chiba and Etsuko Shihomi.
It all turns very tragic and ironically it never had to since the younger
brother had no desire to push his brother aside until circumstances forced
him to try. Chiba plays Jubei Yagyu, a historical legendary swordsman with
his trademark eye-patch whose character has appeared in loads of films, TV
and books.
It is a big film with a large cast - even
a cameo from Toshiro Mifune and Tetsuro Tamba and with appearances from many
actors who had lengthy careers in Japanese film. There is a lot of action
that is well done primarily of the sword fighting kind with a couple large
set pieces. Chiba and Etsuko are often in the midst of it. Historically dramatic
happenings - but then out of curiosity I did a bit of reading on the characters.
Hmmm. In fact, the father Tokugawa Hidetada wasn't poisoned and didn't even
die at that time! He retired and passed on the Shogun title to Iemitsu. And
so everything else that follows was basically Fukasaku having fun. He had
me fooled! The real Iemitsu turned out to be an awful human being - he crucified
Christians, kicked all foreigners out of the country and banned all ships
from leaving Japan for foreign shores with a penalty of death, forced his
brother to commit seppuku, killed his gay lover in the baths and executed
thousands in a rebellion. That would make a good movie.
