Rônin-gai

RONIN GAI, or "Masterless Samurai Street" if you prefer, can be seen as a precursor to films like TWILIGHT SAMURAI which focus on the tragic aspect of the samurai at the end of the era where they were the big shots. The film focuses on a small community of outcasts - former Samurai who are doing various menial jobs to earn their living (or just not) and prostitutes for the most part. They're a damaged bunch of people, and the men in particular are not very nice. Their lives are hardly peaceful and orderly to start off with, but they're messed up further when prostitutes start turning up dead - killed by a fairly expert sword, apparently.

RONIN GAI is a character-driven film, certainly not a murder mystery or any such thing, but a study of a group of people whose world no longer has a place for them. It's not a romantic or sympathetic view of the people, and for quite a while I was quite turned off by the film because I didn't actually like any of the main characters - then I realised that I wasn't really supposed to and stopped viewing it as a flaw or mistake, and enjoyed the rest of it a lot more.

Even though the film does contain some pretty gory violence, and a bit of very tame sex, it is still quite slow-paced and sedate. It deals with some pretty ugly people and situations, and can't be considered a cheerful or pleasant film, but it never uses the nastiness or violence in an "exploitation" style... it does actually want us to care for the characters, but isn't going to paint over their flaws to win us over. The fact we do care for them is a tribute to the strength of the writing and especially the acting, which is fantastic. Special mention must go to Shintaro Katsu in this regard, who gives a wonderful performance in what would turn out to be his final film.

The film is quite nicely shot, but has a bit of a "made for TV" feel to it that I couldn't really explain. It doesn't look low-budget, it's shot on film, and it's got lovely sets and costumes and whatnot... but still feels a bit TV movie-ish. Perhaps it's because it's only 16:9 widescreen, and I'm used to seeing Samurai films at full scope ratio? Or it might have been the sound design and music, which seemed a bit too modern for the period setting.

It definitely took a while for RONIN GAI to win me over, because it builds its characters and its world slowly and delicately, with subtle details and touches. It wasn't the film I was expecting it to be (whatever that was), so perhaps it was a while before I adjusted my critical gaze to look at its actual strengths rather than the strengths I'd expected to find. At some point in the film I realised I was liking it quite a lot though, and by the end it was a very satisfying experience.

8/10

This film focuses on the period when the Samurai were disappearing and Japan was becoming Westernized.

I takes place in a village where master-less ronin spend their time eking out a living, and prostitutes are the main characters. We meet people like Aramaki Gennai (Yoshio Harada) who is most un-samurai like, and seems to be mad, or Doi, a former samurai who raises birds, or Bull (Shintarô Katsu) the bouncer.

The beautiful prostitute Oshin (Kanako Higuchi) is strangely tied to Aramaki, while Horo (Renji Ishibashi) is madly in love with her, but afraid to take her away.

It is a story about characters, not action, although action will soon be a part for those who hang in there.

Soon, some outsiders (seven samurai) start killing off the prostitutes, and the master-less samurai are forced to act like samurai again to save the village, especially when they tie two bulls to Oshin's legs to rip her apart.

A beautiful film with all the bloody action at the end.

Great acting by Kanako Higuchi, Renji Ishibashi, and Yoshio Harada.

This is a character driven movie in which the plot is only corollary to the actual story of a group of characters thrown together in a small town. The marginal plot involves retainers of the Shogun killing prostitutes, but what make this a memorable movie are the characters: 'Bull' - a belligerent drunken bouncer for a drinking establishment who is the spitting image (in spirit) of Toshiro Mifune - 'Aramaki' - an uncouth and dirty ronin and pimp who looks like a Japanese Benicio Del Toro - Oshin - a prostitute and barmaid - Sakichi - who is a former vassal of the local lord who sells birds for a living, and smells eternally of bird droppings, and Horo - who makes his living testing swords on dead convicts. I recommend it if you are tired of the typical range of Samurai movies, and just want an entertaining, well acted drama that just happens to have Samurai with cutting instruments.

With a storyline that has so much promise, and as a tribute to the father of its genre (chambera/jidai-geki), I found this version of Ronin Gai to be both weak and disappointing. The editing and camera-work were dull, close-ups that were cried out for failed to materialize, the incidental music was irrelevant, and characterizations while promising, never attained their potential. The director was supposedly inspired to become such by Kurosawa's work, but aside from a few half-hearted rip-offs there is absolutely nothing of that great director's magic here. This is a bland samurai film in the extreme, and very disappointing.

My review may be biased because I love samurai flicks, & I BLOODSHED love Director Kazuo Kuroki and I will BLOODSHED forever love (& mourn) Katsu "Zatoichi" Shintaro....One of the greatest Japanese actors BLOODSHED of all time, (next to The Magnificent Toshiro Mifune, & the Brilliant Tatsuya Nakadai of course!) All that aside, this BLOODSHED movie can be enjoyed on many levels: Comedy, Drama, Romance, and last but not least...Action!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention...LOTS OF BLOODSHED, but you'll have to have patience, 'cuz it's like the icing on the cake here.

I will definitely be BLOODSHED adding this gem to my ever growing library! And another thing... The only bad "Zatoichi" movie that I've seen is the one made recently by Beat Takashi...it sucked! Long Live Katsu Shintaro R.I.P.