TV film"Byakkotai",review

I watched this TV film for the first time when it was aired long long time
ago, and what I can remember now about it is this film made me cry and cry.
I could just re-watched this one few days ago, It still made me cry, seeing
those young boys committing suicide, the tragedy of Aizu people so proud and
loyal.

As the comment about this film in filmography section on SHQ site, this film
has two parts.
The first part shows well the complicated situation of Aizu. There is some
samurai of the domain like chief retainer Tanomo Saigo, who opposed to Katamori
Matsudaira receiving the office of Protector of Kyoto, because they thought
that would involve Aizu too much in political conflict.
They show also the tragic destiny of Shuri Jinbo, who must commit seppuku
after the defeat of Toba Fushimi, as the responsible of Katamori's abandon.

Shinsengumi makes an appearance indeed, but they show only Kondo, Hijikata
and Okita as main characters. There is no Saitou, nor other principal members.
Nevertheless, Ikedaya Raid scene is awesome one. I like especially Okita
portrayed by Katsuhiko Nakagawa in this film. Kondo and Hijikata are also good,
but perhaps I'm now so captivated by NHK Hijikata.

The second part entirely focuses on Aizu War with many details.
It's really hard to see how Byakkotai boys decided to kill themselves,
suicide of Tanomo Saigo's family including little girls and servants, extermination
of Nihonmatsu Shounentai ( a unit formed by little boys younger than
Byakkotai), etc...
There are also,mortal combat of female unit Joushitai with heroic death of
Takeko Nakano, gun fighting of brave Yaeko Yamamoto, Battle of Bonari Touge(They
shows only Hijikata, however we can imagine at that time Saitou strayed from
Shinsengumi for a while) .

Actors and actress are most prestigious whom you can see in many other films
like Hisaya Morishige(Okazumi Inoue),Koutaro Satomi(Yorimo Saigo),Morio
Kazama(Katamori Matsudaira), Yumi Takigawa(Princesse Teru of Aizu),Masaomi
Kondo(Hijikata) etc... ,

Although many of us might regret absence of Saitou or Tokio in this film,
watching this one makes us imagine his or her presence, have an idea about what
happened during the siege of Aizu.
I have to mention brief appearence of Tokio's brother Morinosuke Takagi as a
messenger.

Tama



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thank you Tama san!

That was a fine review! It sound s like such a good film I wish we could
see it in the US. I'll be updating the filmography soon and will
include your review.
------------------------

See people? It's easy and painless to offer commentary on such things.
You too can give it a shot. Remember it doesn't matter if we already
have commentary on a particular show or film we can include as many
opinions as are offered.

--
Barbara Sheridan
http://www.barbarasheridan.net

I MUST have this film...maybe I got confused with the translation
software but this film was mentioned at 3-hajime.com too...I'll
still want to see this film without subtitles.
No Saitou but it has Tokio's little brother...grumble grumble grumble

secretarytocapt3
who has seen many Japanese films without subs :P