Contes cruels du Bushido

What a shame that an excellent film like this is languishing away with not even 200 votes.

I happen to think that the two nations with the richest film cultures are the French, and the Japanese. Both have multiple examples of excellence in every decade, in every genre. I say this to show my admiration for Japanese cinema writ large. I've seen around 250 Japanese pictures, and "Bushido..." is in my top ten.

I'm not going to get into plot points and things like that. I'm simply going to say that this is a knock-out picture, and a hell of an indictment of the injustices of the samurai era. It features an excellent central performance by Kinnosuke Nakamura (playing a number of different characters over many generations of one family's struggles).

I've only seen this film and "Aduachi" aka Revenge, (which is above average for sure, but not as great as "Bushisdo..."), so to me Imai is a director to keep exploring.

A series of stories follows the sacrifices made by members of a Japanese clan from the 1600s to the 'present' (1963) as they serve masters ranging from feudal lords in the Tokugawa period to the Imperial Government to the modern 'company'. Many of the early stories are brutal, as cruel, capricious, and sometimes sadistic lords expect every their every whim to be catered to without reservation, and there is a pronounced sexual subtext throughout, as many of the demands involve the servitors' wives, fiancées or daughters. The morality of the stories is complex. From a modern perspective, the lords' demands are unconscionable, almost evil at times, and the obedience and self-abasement of the underlings hard to comprehend (viewers waiting for righteous comeuppances may be disappointed), but values were different and many of the characters seem to believe that the absolute authority of 'superiors' over their 'inferiors' was expected and acceptable, and that acquiescence to such demands was both honourable and a privilege. The cast is very good (I watched a subtitled version) and Kinnosuke Nakamura is excellent playing the central character from each period. Some budgetary restrictions are evident (notably in the brief 'Kamikaze' vignette) but otherwise the production values, including the score, are great. As others have commented, the film is too short to do justice to all of the stories but otherwise is an excellent counter-point to the numerous jidaigeki that glorify feudal Japan (or at least reduce the period and its culture to a simple 'good vs. bad' background for a sword-opera).

Aware that it was made by a commie director Tadashi Imai I decide put a food behind on his unorthodoxy offering where impose a visceral narrative which every generation of loyal servants, actually were jinxed due so mistreated by their lords, it's easy to check out on final sequence at modern Japan, when a couple is subdue by their company's chiefs, well it certainly doesn't find any echo on the truth, it no longer persist in sixties whatsoever.

Starting this point of view the jinxed family around 350 years passing by harshly days in hands of fiendish lords over and over again, working as page of lord mostly of time, it is a bit contrived tale at first glance, of course at its time had loyalty quite sure, although as exposes in the movie sounds as unlucky family's generation, aside all those mismatches others fine elements enter to amplifying the production as a whole, perfect photography, fine dialogues, lavish sets, wardrobe and so on, also Kinnosuke Nakamura in a stunning performance on all segments of each generation that were doomed an everlasting suffering, anyway a dark and twisted vision from the Japanese past.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.