The Samurai I Loved

Toho Film Company

AnimEigo 2009

R1 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

Japanese with clear subtitles.

The story takes place in Japan during its feudal era. Bunshiro is a young student. His father has become involved in a struggle over who will succeed their feudal lord. His side has lost and he is forced to commit seppuku (ritual disembowelling). Since his father is regarded as a traitor in the village most of the people now avoid Bunshiro, except for Fuku, the young girl next door. He is falling in love with her.

Bunshiro’s mother is forced from the family home to live in poverty in a ramshackle house at the edge of the village. He continues his studies at the local martial arts dojo as best he can but his future looks grim.

He is called to attend the local administrator, who tried to help Bunshiro’s father before his death. He has arranged a job for Bunshiro as a local Crop Inspector. The family name is rehabilitated and his mother moves back into the old family home. Fuku has moved to the city of Edo as a maid in the local warlord’s castle. She has come to the lord’s notice and is now a concubine. The power struggle for a successor continues. One of the lord’s senior wives is out to make sure her son is chosen as the successor and has had Fuku’s baby son killed. Fuku has had another baby boy and has now fled the capital to her old home town

The administrator’s duplicity now shows out. He orders Bunshiro to take the baby from Fuku and bring it to him. With the baby in his power he will be able to win a concurrent power struggle with his superior in the capital. If the kidnap doesn’t work out Bunshiro will be blamed and executed. Bunshiro must now decide between loyalty to his master or his love for Fuku. Either way there will be bloodshed. He finds unexpected help from the local villagers and from his old friends at the dojo, but the looming showdown will still happen.

Producer Mitsuo Kurotsuchi has given us a lovely film. The acting is good, the story is intelligible and the cinematography is superb. The forbidden love between Fuku and Bunshiro is underplayed but is more powerful for that. One feature of the film is the use of extra subtitles at the top of the picture to explain references in the film that haven’t translated very well. These are only occasionally used and do not interfere with the flow of the film in any way, but help us better understand the culture in which the film is set.

The DVD includes a wide range of extras – an image gallery, cast and crew biographies, notes and an interview with the director.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.1 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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