Gawdziller

"Chushingura" retells the famous story of Lord Asano's loyal men in a way uncommon to most historical dramas. Not only does it give the account in wonderful detail, incorporating a great many historical characters (though, as has been said, they can be hard to keep track of), but it is also a wonderfully beautiful and emotional film.

The cinematography is fantastic. Colors are put to good use and set up a wonderful atmosphere; it is a shame that the only DVD release of this film available in the United States is of such poor quality that much of the effect is lost. Akira Ifukube's score is, as usual, magnificent and adds as much mood and atmosphere to the film as the beautiful photography. Many of Toho's great actors are present here and do a commendable job of portraying the vast array of characters. The classic story is told with great emotion as well as attention to detail, and the pacing never slips. There are also many interesting transitions from scene to scene, set up in such a way that a scene often appears at first to be part of the one before it.

A terrific movie. Recommended for all who are interested in this most memorable part of Japanese history and/or dazzling cinematic beauty.

Alright, I can see why some people don't like this movie. Its sense of humor doesn't appeal to everyone, and that's understandable, but how anyone could slam this film the way I've seen it slammed here is beyond me. It doesn't appeal to your sense of humor? That's fine by me. It just doesn't make sense for someone to rattle on and on about how lame the jokes are. If you don't like it, that's okay. There's no reason to repeatedly rephrase the statement "this sucks" into about 50 different forms and try to pass it off as a review.

That being said, I love this movie. It is a wonderful parody of classic martial arts films, with Oedekerk being placed into one such film and dubbing all the characters, with a few new scenes to add to the humor and nonsensical plot.

I, personally, find "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" to be one of the most quotable movies of all time. It doesn't matter if you like the movie or not, you're not going to forget a line like "At that moment, the Chosen One learned a valuable lesson about iron claws...they hurt like crap, man!"

Sure, it's immature and often doesn't make much sense. But like I said, it's not a movie that everyone will enjoy. If you don't like it, tough. I do, and no amount of variations on "this sucks" is going to change that.

There are many people who look at this movie, even in its original, uncut, undubbed form, ignore what it's saying and take it for nothing more than a standard 1950s monster movie.

I will admit that on the outside it does seem very much like one of the many monster-on-the-loose films which were common at the time, and the theme of mankind's misuse of atomic weapons was overdone in many such films. Here, however, there are major differences which set this movie apart from the others.

The prolonged scenes of Godzilla's victims in the hospitals are disturbingly reminiscent of what really happened in the aftermaths of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki not even ten years before the film's release. The memory of such tragedies was still relatively fresh in the minds of many Japanese moviegoers and thus the message was conveyed more eloquently than the usual route of a scientist and his monologue on the misuse of atomic weapons commonly found in American monster movies at the time. Most of the serious portrayal of this theme was removed from the Americanized version of the film, as American audiences would likely be confused by such a seriously conveyed message.

Aside from its deep allegorical meaning, it is also a well-made film. Too many critics put down Tsuburaya's special effects, referring to them as cheap and quickly done. While not convincing by today's standards, the effects are exceptional for the time period and should be regarded with more respect. Another factor to be recognized is Ifukube's wonderful music, which enhances the film's emotional impact. There is also a great cast, made up almost entirely of actors who would return for many other monster outings from Toho (including Kurosawa veteran Takashi Shimura). Also to be noted is Haruo Nakajima's masterful performance of the titular beast. The characters, especially the tragic hero Serizawa, are very memorable. Honda achieves some incredible work here with his direction, creating a wonderfully dark, tense atmosphere.

All these factors are combined to create what happens to be my all-time favorite film. A monster movie with as much meaning as this one you'll never find.