Goyokin

[NOTE: Some corrections have been made to the post per the comments beneath it. I wrongly identified the hero's wife as his sister and his brother in law as a lord instead of a retainer. Corrections were made.]Hideo Gosha might slip under the radar screen of great Japanese directors - he's not the most prolific director out there, but he has a couple of good samurai films under his belt, including this one. "Goyokin" means official gold. Towards the end of Tokugawa rule, the bakufu was mining gold and silver off an island, so the story says, to help fund the government. This gold was then shipped to Edo. That's the expositional narration that sets up the story. Here we have (again) the always adorable Ruriko Asaoka playing Oriha. She's fixing to get a very rude awakening. Her smile is the result of seeing a wedding procession passing along the beach. Only, it is not a real wedding procession. Upon returning to her home town, she realizes that it has been destroyed, abandoned, etc. This proves to be a life altering experience for Oriha - and not in a warm fuzzy Oprah way, either.Only ravens remain. And they don't provide a friendly atmosphere.Meet Magobei Wakizaka. He'll be the resident samurai badass assigned for the picture. He is guilt ridden for reasons that will become clear later.Okay, now is later: The folks in Oriha's village were slaughtered by their local retainer. The reason: the goyokin ship sank right off shore and the villagers retrieved the payload. The local needed the money to pay off the bakufu, so they took it and then slaughtered the villagers to cover their tracks.Magobei was under the local retainer (a brother in law) and was there and witnessed the horror. It changed his life, too. He left the clan in exile under the agreement that the retainer would never commit such an atrocity again. Guess what happens....The always adorable Ruriko Asaoka goes from being a good decent betrothed gal to being a hustler taking advantage of yakuza scum....Survival is difficult, but she's pretty tough when the shit hits the fan. Here, the yakuza scum discover she's been using loaded dice. Instead of panicking, she keeps her cool and tells them that she is connected to the Kamikakushi, a term loosely meaning "unexplained disappearance." It has a superstitious meaning in the film. To get the whole story, watch the picture. But essentially it means that she was there in the village that got slaughtered three years back. (Oh yeah, there was a time lapse from the opening scene to the present story)As luck would have it, Magobei Wakizaka overhears her talking and comes to the rescue...Allowing for her escape.They meet again in the next town. She figures he knows something about the massacre. But what? His troubled soul is reluctant to talk...But the audience can see his thoughts.The always adorable Ruriko just can't stay out of trouble. Here, she's getting the Will Lockhart treatment.Only to be saved, once again, by the resident badass.Oh yeah, there's another girl in the story. She's Magobei's wife and sister to the evil retainer. She's a little creepy - though I don't think that was the intention of the filmakers. His exile was hard on her. She has black teeth.During their unexpected visit, he tells here that he's on his way back home to prevent another Kamikakushi. She wants him to flee with her.Magobei is ambushed in this hut. The Japanese are not afraid to film rain.Magobei, along with Oriha and a few others I've failed to mention, plan to thwart the evil retainer's attempt to sink the goyokin boat, steal the gold and kill the villagers...Here's the evil retainer... And his men, who are preparing to implement the plan...But Magobei has plans of his own...Those plans include killing a bunch of guards....Meanwhile, Oriha does the important stuff. Here, she is attempting to free the villagers. Next, she will disrupt the fire signal that is pivotal to causing the goyokin ship to sink.
Magobei is still killing guards....A few things go wrong, as the expression on the adorable Oriha's face below indicates. But overall, they are successful in thwarting the plot.The next morning, however, leaves some unfinished business. Magobei must have a final duel with the evil retainer. But the temperature is such that his hands are too cold to hold his katana. No problem, his wife with the black teeth has a warm bossom he can touch to warm himself.
Closer to the duel, the evil retainer is also trying to keep his hands warm.Magobei has killing on his mind.The villagers are providing the sound track - beating on drums and celebrating the thwarting of the plot.The duel is over.
While the villagers celebrate, Magobei is a-fixin' to leave. Oriha locks stares with him. If he ain't a fool, he'll grab her hand.Because she is waiting....But he's a fool.And don't get too excited at this shot, because I think that is his wife with black teeth following him. I could be wrong, though. That part was a little confusing.

Onibaba (1964)

If ever a film knew how to film grass, this is it. Two things will remain etched in your brain after watching Onibaba: the setting and the music. But it's also a hot steamy sensual story, powerful in its simplicity. In fact, it's so sensual that even Mother Nature has a vagina.Mother and Daughter strip dead or dying samurai of their armor to survive in a cruel world.Not many people live in this crazy environment. So it doesn't take much more than a scuzzy man to seduce the young girl.That brings on the jealousy and wrath of the mother.There's some horror thrown into the mix.Ironically, it's the mother who assumes a face that will stick.

Samurai Thought for the Day #1

Japanese samurai films tend to have something in common, and that something is loads and loads of exposition. Characters take up a lot of screen time sitting on tatami mats talking about the plot tactically and strategically. "If we do A, then they will do B, unless we do C which will probably cause them to do D" Is this something cultural? I don't know....

The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail

If there are no swords drawn and the samurai are all disguised as monks for the entire picture, can it still be considered a samurai film? I looked in the Liverputty handbook, but could not find a direct rule regarding the matter. So I went to the Council of Elders and they decided that it could be, so long as there was a reasonable level of suspense.

The background to this early Kurosawa film is intriguing. It began at the end of the war and by the time they were shooting, the war had ended. The American censors banned it because of its bushido elements until 1952, when it was eventually released. One can only imagine the uncertainty in the air with the fate of the country, let alone this particular project, as the Toho crew pressed on to finish it. The results: it is a slightly messy film. There are no obvious climaxes to it and it tends to follow the noh form (it was based on a noh play) in many ways over a film form. It is essentially built around one scene in the middle of the picture.

The story: The Gempei War has just ended and now, two brothers - allies of that war - have turned into enemies. Yoshitsune, a victorious general in the Gempei War, is being hunted by his brother, Yoritomo. Yoshitsune, along with six men, attempt to reach Hidehira Fujiwara, who could offer Yoshitsune safety. To do so, they had to pass through a barrier in Kaga Province, under the command of its magistrate, Saemon Tagashi (played by Sanshiro Sugata star, Susumu Fujita). The film is chiefly about passing through that barrier.

With Yoshitsune's right hand man, Benkei (Denjirô Ôkôchi), leading the way, the six men, disguised as monks, with Yoshitsune disguised as a porter and another actual porter (Kenicho Enomoto) providing comedy relief, travel to the barrier. There is a tense back and forth between Benkei and Tagashi. Rumor has it that Yoshitsune and his men are traveling in the guise of monks. Yoshitsune as a porter looks suspiciously royal, which threatens to smash their plans. But quick thinking Benkei beats the porter, which convinces Tagashi that these are not the monks he is looking for. What man would beat his master, right? (In the play, Tagashi is aware that it is Yoshitsune, but lets them pass because he feels that Benkei's willingness to beat his own master in order to save that master's life is a touching sign of devotion and loyalty).

After passing through the barrier, Benkei humbly begs the forgiveness of Yoshitsune, who is cool with it. A sake drinking scene follows, which allows prewar comedy sensation, Kenicho Enomoto, to show off some pretty impressive facial dexterity as well as a comically satisfying interpretive dance.

The film also has a young Takashi Shimura, as one of the "monks", who looks very much like the older Takashi Shimura. Even then he had the perfect face to express humanity.

Be forwarned. This may be a pretty good movie, but the transfer on the current DVD is cheap and offers some horrible subtitles. TCM has shown a much better and professionally slick version, but when that will be released on DVD is anybody's guess.

Lady Snowblood

…is almost as unwatchable as Sex and Fury and A Female Yakuza Tale. I’ve never been able to cipher Japanese perversion, but as a general rule, blood splattered Japanese hotties hacking their way through a film makes this samurai’s katana limp. Lady Snowblood is a precursor to Kill Bill – a revenge tale with a list of targets and a woman to get the job done. That’s not a selling point for me for either picture, but it might be for some folks.I tried to get a screenshot of Ms. Snowblood chopping a character in half, but it was too blurry to capture. You can get an idea of the bloodiness, though, in the frames below.Geysers of blood tended to drench the samurai pictures of the 70s, which is one small reason that they are inferior to the masterpieces of the 50s and 60sDid I mention that there was a lot of blood in the Lady Snowblood films?Well, there is! Which, as mentioned before, detracts from the honey that wields the deadly sword. If Broadway did an adaptation, the audience would have to bring their Gallagher tarps.

Incident at Bloodpass

Yojimbo has a simple job. He is to go to the village of Ina and stay at an inn called "Kameya" for a few days, drink sake, amuse himself, and wait for a message with a Tenpo-sen coin stamp. There will be one character in the message. If the character is “mountain”, he’s to head immediately to Nakasendou and thence to the border of Suwa. But if the character is “three”, he needs to go to Sanshuu Pass and wait for something to happen. It’s up to him to determine if he needs to kill or not. Got it? Pretty simple. Let’s go!When it comes to drinking sake, nobody looks cooler than Toshiro Mifune. He's like Bogart with a glass of bourbon.The Waify Woman? That’s the always adorable Asaoka Ruriko. She’s a runaway wife – her husband beat her and tied her up. She was forced to leave him and tag along with Yojimbo.She followed him until they got to a tea house, then she stayed behind to work. A lot of stuff in the movie happens around this spot.The message with the Tenpo-sen coin stamp said "three" so it's off to the pass to see what happens.The Discredited Doctor.Here’s the pass.
Is it all coincidence or is it planned? It takes a lot of men to subdue Yojimbo. And even then, there’s no guarantee that he can be subdued.Hiroshi Inagaki….meet Sergio Leone. Leone….Inagaki.
Masaru Satô…meet Ennio Morricone.

You'll know what I mean by that when you watch Inagaki's direction and hear the soundtrack. Incident at Bloodpass is a good solid film, but if it wasn't, the style alone - the give and take found between westerns, samurai films, spaghetti westerns, more samurai films (with a pinch of Petrified Forest and Key Largo thrown in)- is enough to make Bloodpass worthwhile. It's not a big film or an action packed film, but it never loses interest, the cinematography is superb and, of course, Toshiro Mifune is, well, Toshiro Mifune. That's more than anyone can ask for.

Zatoichi

I was once impressed by a story I heard about Blind Willie McTell, who was walking home late one night on some dark country road in Georgia and shot a dog that tried to attack him. What impressed me was that he was 1)blind 2)carrying a gun and 3)managed to kill the dog. Well, after watching the blind swordsman Zatoichi go to work slicing up dozens of men at time throughout the better part of 17 features, I’m not so easily impressed.
There are times when a keen sense of smell and a well tuned ear come in more handy than sight. There are fifteen assassins in this picture:But don’t worry: Zatoichi has the matter well in hand...Notice he killed them so quickly that they are all still standing.....By the time they fall down, Zatoichi has already gone on to other things.You may be asking yourself whether you are ready to confront Zatoichi and his 17 features. If you decided to do so, please note that there will be some laughter, some boredom, some suspense and a little eye-rolling here and there.

Great Escape in N. Korea

As of December 20th, 120 prisoners escaped from a camp in Hwasung, according to the link. Apparently 21 have been recaptured (not sure when or how that number was determined) and the hunt is on for the rest. Check the link for details and satellite maps.

Samurai are coming!

Both Wagstaff and I are fixing to go public with our tremendous infatuation with Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy (not shown above) through a series of three appreciations that will be published at the House Next Door. To accompany those pieces over the next few weeks, Liverputty International will be posting various shorter pieces touching on other samurai movies - and believe me, there are a lot of good ones out there! Pour a drink or two down my guzzler and I may make the audacious claim that samurai pictures, as a genre, are second only to westerns. Give me a few more drinks and I might stand on the table and say that they are second to none. Of course, not all samurai pictures are good - and Liverputty will not shy away from posting on the bad ones. So keep an eye on the blog for all your samurai needs.