Article: Another samurai swinging in Edo's twilight

Another samurai swinging in Edo's twilight

By MARK SCHILLING

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Oni no Tsume -- Kakushi Ken

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Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Director: Yoji Yamada
Running time: 131 minutes
Language: Japanese
Currently showing

Akira Kurosawa never liked to repeat himself. True, "Yojimbo" (1961)
and "Tsubaki Sanjuro" (1962) were strikingly similar in the way the
crafty samurai hero (played in both films by Toshiro Mifune)
outwitted his enemies -- but Kurosawa made "Yojimbo" from an
original script, while "Tsubaki Sanjuro" was based on a novel by
Shugoro Yamamoto. Also, after these box-office successes, he put
Mifune's samurai -- his most popular creation -- into permanent
storage.

By contrast, Kenji Misumi turned his 1962 hit about a blind
swordsman, "Zatoichi Monogatari," into a series that lasted 26
episodes, one featuring a showdown between Zatoichi and Yojimbo
(which Kurosawa had nothing to do with whatsoever).

Though a declared disciple of Kurosawa -- and corecipient of the
first-ever Akira Kurosawa Award for career achievement at this
year's Tokyo International Film Festival -- Yoji Yamada is more in
the spin-it-out-forever mold of Misumi. Best known for the 48 films
in his "Tora-san" series about a wandering peddler who is forever
falling in love, Yamada has directed or scripted several other
series in his four-decade-long career, including the "Tsuribaka
Nisshi (Free and Easy)" series about a fishing-crazy salaryman, now
in its 15th installment.

Two years ago, Yamada released his first jidai geki (period drama) --
"Tasogare Seibei (The Twilight Samurai)." Based on three novellas
by Shuhei Fujisawa, this portrait of a low-ranking samurai who was
both a devoted family man and a death-dealing swordsman swept the
Japanese Academy Awards and was nominated for a Best Foreign Film
Oscar.

Given his track record, it's no surprise that Yamada's second period
drama is much like his first. "Oni no Tsume -- Kakushi Ken (The
Hidden Blade)" is not only based on two short stories by Fujisawa,
but also has a storyline similar to that of "Tasogare Seibei."

Once again the hero, Katagiri Munezo (Masatoshi Nagase), is the
samurai equivalent of a hira (rank-and-file) salaryman, scraping by
on 30 koku (bales of rice) a year. Once again he is a dab hand with
a sword, having learned the deadly kakushiken (hidden blade)
technique from his fencing teacher. And once again the hero falls in
love with a woman, the lovely family servant Kie (Takako Matsu),
whom he considers untouchable (not unsuitable) because of the class
difference between them. (The platonic love of ["Twilight"] Seibei's
life was from a higher-ranking samurai family.)

Yamada films this story in the same subdued and realistic, if
emotionally charged, style as "Tasogare." Instead of the dancelike
sword fights of so many jidai geki, though, the duels in "Oni no
Tsume" look sweaty, tiring and dangerous. Also, instead of the theme-
park appearance of so many jidai geki, with every kimono and fusuma
(sliding door) seemingly brand new, the clothes and sets in "Oni no
Tsume" have a lived-in, even worn-out, look. Meanwhile, the cast of
characters, particularly the lower classes, mostly look in need of a
long rest and a few good meals. The full-of-beans folks of so many
jidai geki, forever about to burst into song or dance are nowhere in
sight.

"Oni no Tsume," however, is not a two-hour exercise in gloom and
doom. Serious though he may be, Yamada is first and foremost an
entertainer who is dedicated to giving his large audience what it
wants.

So, what we get is an opening scene of two samurai friends, Katagiri
and Shimada Samon (Hidetaka Yoshioka), bidding a third, Hazama
Yachiro (Yukiyoshi Ozawa), goodbye at a riverbank as his boat leaves
for Edo (present-day Tokyo), where he intends to work for their clan
and seek his fortune.

The two stay-at-homes, though sad, are not about to follow him.
Shimada is looking forward to his marriage to Katagiri's younger
sister Shino (Tomoko Tabata), while Katagiri is living contentedly
with his elderly mother and devoted servant-girl Kie.

Three years pass. Katagiri's mother dies and Kie marries a son of
the Iseyas, prosperous oil sellers in town. Meanwhile, waves of
Westernization and political change are surging through the Tohoku
region -- and Katagiri's clan is not exempt. He starts to learn the
foreign arts of war (including how to fire a cannon without causing
major havoc to the people firing them). The age of the sword and
samurai is coming to an end.

Then Katagiri learns that, far from the happy life he had imagined
for her, Kie has separated from her husband and is wasting away from
illness. He rescues her, brings her home, where he, Shino and Kie's
younger sister Bun slowly nurse her back to health. Meanwhile, her
feelings toward him change from gratitude to something more -- and
he finds himself wanting to reciprocate.

But before Katagiri can properly celebrate Kie's recovery, more bad
news arrives: Hazama has been discovered leading a plot against the
clan leaders -- and has been imprisoned in a mountain hut instead of
being allowed to honorably commit seppuku like the other plotters.
Because Katagiri and Hazama trained at the same fencing school,
Katagiri's loyalty is doubted by the clan's wily karo (chief
retainer), Shogen Hori (Ken Ogata). How can he prove it -- while
staying true to himself?

As Katagiri, Nagase is no longer the punkish rebel he played in
Yamada's 1991 father-and-son drama "Musuko (My Son)." Instead, here
he is closer to the modest-but-proud samurai Sanada Hiroyuki
portrayed in "Tasogare Seibei." But while the martial-arts-trained
Sanada impressed more with his sword skills, Nagase is more
convincingly the pacifist at heart who turns to violence only out of
extreme necessity -- but knows how to mete it out. The sense of
banked fires that can flare up, which Yamada deployed to good effect
in the earlier film, is still present, though Nagase, now pushing 40
and no longer the wild kid, really seems to mean it when he says he
wants a quiet life with the woman he loves.

When the world is going mad around you, carving out a small oasis of
sanity is no mean feat. Sometimes it helps to have a hidden blade.

The Japan Times: Nov. 10, 2004
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