She has agreed to review either Jet Li’s Hero or A redux of The Divine Weapon as my post was totally insufficient in her eyes. Good luck Bonnie we are all looking forward to your review(s).
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
O.K. Three Down Three to Go.
Next we examine the second film in Mifune’s Muashi trilogy as well as movies 3 & 4 from the 1961 five part Musashi marathon.
Musashi-NHK’s 2003 49 Episode Series Part 1.
NHK (Japan’s National Broadcasting Co.) 2003 Series on Musashi—This could be my favorite.
“You must cultivate your wisdom and spirit. Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the Ways of different arts one by one. When you cannot be deceived by men you will have realized the wisdom of strategy.” Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings, The Book of Water.
As we know from previous posts, Musashi is often regarded as the greatest samurai of all time. He was undefeated in over 60 duels and has attained the legendary status of Sword Saint (“kensei”). Aside from being an undefeated swordsman, Musashi was also a painter and calligrapher. It seems like he applied his Way of the Sword to all walks of life.
The 42nd NHK Taiga Drama “Musashi” (Taiga Drama is the name NHK gives to the annual, year-long historical-fiction television series it broadcasts in Japan) is based on the famous biography written by Yoshikawa Eiji, “Musashi,” often considered the “Gone with the Wind of Japan.” Yoshikawa’s novel is one of my favorite novels of all time and I’ve read quite a few novels. So if you get a chance or have some time read it you will not regret it. Anyways, back to the show.
Like the two other series, Musashi’s story begins just after the great Battle of Sekigahara. Musashi joined the battle because he always dreamed of becoming a strong samurai. In this series we learn that his father Shinmen Munisai had abused him when he was a child, constantly berating him as a useless weakling. Such treatment instilled a tough will to become strong and powerful to surpass his father to prove he was no weakling. The NHK series takes several episodes to show that Takezo was fueled by rage, leading a life filled with bloodshed and carnage. However, as the series progresses, at the end of each episode Musashi learns one valuable lesson after another that life is not a matter of brute strength, but also a spiritual path that involves the perfection of his sword techniques contemporaneously with the mind.
The initial episodes follow Musashi as he travels across the country challenging many fighters and their unique styles of fighting as he undergoes the rigorous training to become one with his sword. After each episode the show retraces Musashi’s path through modern day Japan showing the viewer historical markers and other remnants of Musashi’s life. Even better, we start to see Musashi’s unconventional tactics employed to give him an edge in his duels—like showing up two hours late to fights wwhich infuriated his opponents thereby distracting them from the task at hand and more.
Joining Musashi in his travels are his childhood friend Matahachi, his starry-eyed lover Otsu, his disciple/adopted son Jotaro and the sagacious Zen monk Takuan. Here NHK takes some interesting turns from both series we have previously watched; that is, it portrays Matahachi more as a comical character bumbling his way through life. For instance, Matahachi is seen as an inept swordsman, but in the book this is not the case—he is in fact quite competent having fought and survived at Sekigahara. He, like anyone else, just looks bad when standing next to Musashi. It reminded me of reading the original Sherlock Holmes stories describing Dr. Watson as an intelligent man—a physician. However, Watson is usually portrayed as a bumbling fool in most movies and TV episodes.
The first several NHK episodes also begin to raise the political aspect of the story, namely the struggle of power between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi clans. If you have seen the TV miniseries “Shogun” or read James Clavell’s novel, you have heard of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan and ruled after winning the Battle of Sekigahara creating a dynasty that lasted many many years. One issue persistently raised throughout the series is the samurai way of life v.s. the political life. The inevitable tension between the paths are represented by Musashi and Yagyu Munenori (another famous samurai). Musashi chooses the spiritual reclusive life free of politics to follow his Way of the Sword and true spiritual strength. Yagyu Munenori, on the other hand, leads a Machiavellian political and worldly life serving the shogun to gain power, rank and respect. We will see how these two lifestyles play out during the series.
As the episodes progress, numerous themes and issues emerge but I have no intention of revealing them all in this post. Here we are only going to go as far as our other two movies.
Be that as it may, I really enjoy the NHK series (and in fact have enjoyed every one I have seen). Because NHK has fifty hours to work with instead of six-ten like the films, they can (and do) take their time to try and tell the tale of such an extraordinary life.
Next, we delve into the appropriate film sequels setting the second stage of Musashi’s journey through Japan.
Zen & Sword and Showdown at Hannyazaka–been having some internet problems lately.
Zen & Sword (1961) and Showdown at Hannyazaka (1962)
“The Way of the warrior does not include other Ways, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, certain traditions, artistic accomplishments and dancing. But even though these are not part of the Way, if you know the Way broadly you will see it in everything. Men must polish their particular Way.” Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings, The Ground Book.
Now we are going to look at the first two installments of the five part series on Miyamoto Musashi starring Nakamura Kinnosuke as Musashi. I must tell you at the outset that these films go into much more detail than the 1954 Mifune series—in fact it takes all of Zen & Sword (1961) and a good part of Showdown at Hannyazaka (1962) to cover the same ground as seen in the 1954 version.
Zen & Sword (1961) and Showdown at Hannyazaka (1962) introduce us to Takezo, what Musashi used to be before he was locked in an attic for three years. Again Takezo sides with the Toyotomi at Sekigahara, and as a result finds himself on the losing side of the historic battle. He and his friend Matahachi (Kimura Isao) manage to escape the slaughter although Matahachi is wounded in the leg. They stagger across Akemi (Oka Satomi) who makes her living with her mother Oko (Kogure Michiyo) by robbing the corpses from Sekigahara of their armor and anything else of value. Oko decides to seduce Matahachi, which she does first by skillfully sucking the gangrene from his blood, and then just by . . .
Back in their home village of Miyamoto, Matahachi’s fiancée Otsu (Irie Wakaba) is questioning just what has happened to Matahachi and Takezo. Matahachi has a mother that is a real jerk, the old Osugi (Chieko Naniwa) who blames Takezo for every fault of her son and for luring him away and ruining the reputation of their “illustrious” farming family—which in my opinion is merely a delusion of grandeur.
Takezo decides to return when Matahachi elopes with Oko and her daughter and he is not welcomed with open arms to say the least. The victorious Tokugawa have thrown up checkpoints to catch Sekigahara stragglers, of which Takezo eminently is one, yet he remains determined to deliver the good news of Matahachi’s failure to get himself killed to the villagers. When Takezo breaks through the checkpoint things take a turn for the worse. An overzealous local samurai Tanzaemon (Hanazawa Tokubei) presses the farmers into service to capture Takezo and during the ensuing manhunt; Takezo is forced to kill several people, which does not exactly bode well for his public relations.
When things really get out of hand, priest Takuan (Mikuni Rentaro) intervenes and captures the “beast,” and saves his soul in the process of saving his skin. The wild Takezo surrenders to the Buddhist only to find himself strung up from a tree where he is told to contemplate the meaning of life. After several days in the tree, Otsu is unable to bear the sight of the poor man dangling and frees him so they can both escape the village.
The transformation of Takezo has now begun, as has the development of love in Otsu for him and vice versa. We also see Takezo beginning to value life but without any comprehension of what it means to have a worthy existence. Takuan, having recognized the urge to truly live, takes him to a castle and locks him up in the attic where Takezo is forced to read great works and contemplate his future. The ghosts of Takezo’s fallen family also appear during his extended stay and implore him to make their existence meaningful by leading a worthy life. Meanwhile, Otsu is waiting the entire time for Takezo to fulfill his promise to come back for her, even if it takes a “thousand days” and it does.
At this point we flow into Showdown at Hannyazaka which begins when, after spending 3 years of study in solitary, Takezo is brought before the Clan Lord and made an official Samurai. At the meeting, Takezo receives his new samurai name from the Lord that he will forever be remembered by: Miyamoto Musashi. As he leaves the castle, Takuan gives Musashi a quick current events summary for the past three years telling him that he is about to join 100,000 other unemployed samurai (ronin) as he travels Japan seeking to develop his sword skill.
The first stop for Musashi on his quest to master the sword is in the town of Nara near Kyoto to “learn” from the Hozoin Priests about their fabled spear fighting technique. While visiting the Hozoin Priests, Musashi encounters a group of rogue ronin who have been terrorizing the locals. Musashi decides to meet this renegade group at Hannyazaka Pass, for a fight to the death. Little does Musashi know that the spear wielding priests have used him as bait to help rid the town of these criminals by killing them off. The film ends with Musashi screaming about his role in the battle and the compassion the priests show the butchered ronin by placing prayer rocks on their corpses.
Musashi’s journey to Hozoin is an example of the additional detail the five part series explores since none of these events appear or are even mentioned in the Mifune/Inagaki version of the Musashi story, even though the battle at Hannyazaka Pass is considered one of Musashi’s greatest feats. The films differ in other ways as well i.e. they are not Mifune centered and allow for the development of the people around Musashi, which plays a material role in his development as a samurai and a human being. Of the two series discussed so far, I prefer Zen & Sword (1961) and Showdown at Hannyazaka (1962) any day of the week over the Mifune/Inagaki films—though many critics will disagree with me on that call.
Next time we’ll take a look at the NHK series and compare the telling of Musashi’s tale with the films we have discussed so far and see where that takes us.
Installment 1 Musashi the Early Years
“Step by step walk the thousand mile road.” – Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
We are going to start our series where it probably should start—at the beginning. All Musashi movies are based on Eiji Yoshikawa’s famous biographical novel Musashi, often considered as the Gone with the Wind of Japan. It is an excellent work and I encourage everyone to read it.
We will follow all three works one segment at a time, the Original 1954 Mifune film Miyamoto Musashi (or the Original 1954 version); Zen & Sword (1961); followed by Showdown at Hannyazakaz also known as Dual at Devil’s Mask Pass (1962) (it took both Zen & Sword and Showdown at Hannyazakaz to reach the same stopping point as the Original 1954 version) and the first several episodes of the 2003 NHK series Musashi (we’ll call that series NHK), until roughly the same chronological stopping point in Musashi’s tale.
The Original:
Toshiro Mifune stars as the foolish young man, Takezo (the town’s wild, orphan kid) who leaves his village when the battle of Sekigahara looms and convinces his friend, Matahachi to join him despite some initial reluctance. Instead of glory, they barely escape with their lives and Matahachi suffers a significant leg wound. While evading enemy forces that are bent on killing all survivors, the pair find shelter with two women–an incredibly self-serving sociopathic mother and her daughter who is not yet as jaded and selfish as mom. Mifune resists temptation and runs from them, while his friend succumbs to their pleas to stay–and in essence throws away his life, fiancée Otsu and his honor.
Matahachi and his two female companions go to Kyoto, but Takezo returns to their village to provide Matahachi’s family with news on his condition. Matahachi’s family rejects Takezo’s report and has him arrested for treason. A monk, Takuan, rescues him from death and uses his influence with the regional lord to sentence him to study of the samurai code found in hundreds of great philosophical books. Takezo’s cell? A windowless attic where he spends the next three years of his life “becoming a human again.” Otsu and Takezo have also fallen in love and she promises to wait for him when he sets off on the road as a knight errant. In fact Otsu waits the three years, but is ditched by Miyamoto Musashi f/k/a Takezo when she finally meets him again. Though Musashi does carve the characters “Forgive Me” into the bridge before he left.
This is a classic movie let’s make no mistake about it, despite having Mifune in the lead, this is not an Akira Kurasawa film (i.e. Yojimbo) and some may be disappointed that it is a little more stodgy than one of his other films. Naturally, when one thinks of who should play a Japanese legend – and Miyamoto is known as Kinsei, or “Sword Saint” in Japan – only Mifune comes to mind. The assumption cuts both ways in that the film focuses on Mifune and ignores many of the other important sub-plots that follow Musashi’s story. We only get a glimpse of what is happening to Matahachi or the posse that Matahachi’ s mother forms to kill Miyamoto as “revenge” for spoiling her son. Be that as it may, we will get a better idea of the differences in the next posting when we can compare the interpretation of the Musashi story as it appears through the films.
The beauty of Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto lies in the spiritual journey Takezo undergoes as a wild man. He will not be tamed by the lusty ways of women or by nature itself, but Takuan the monk does succeed when he forces the warrior to look inward as Takezo learns that power and strength are not sufficient. The movie also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, but Americans would have to wait almost ten years to see part 2.
J.P.'s I'm Outta Here Movie Thoughts 
We interrupt this Musashi series to bring you SS’s maiden review: Keeping up with the Joneses
The Joneses focuses on a foursome whose job is to pose as a family in wealthy suburbia in order to sell, to their neighbors, their picture-perfect luxury lifestyle and the accoutrements it requires. This phony stealth “marketing unit” is led by veteran mom Kate (Demi Moore) and includes rookie dad Steve (David Duchovny), slutty daughter Jenn (Amber Heard), and milquetoast son Mick (Ben Hollingsworth), all of them employed by KC (Lauren Hutton) to push high-end products to the various demographic groups in which they mingle. They can’t tell anyone what they’re doing, of course. That would defeat the purpose. Instead, they must cultivate “friendships” with the people they’re subtly advertising to. They’re salespeople whose goal is to market themselves, and director Derrick Borte promotes this fantasy with enough electronics-and-dishware fetishism to slyly indict his audience’s own materialist hunger.
In their new ritzy enclave, the Joneses wow the locals and befriend a couple, Larry Symonds (Gary Cole of Office Space) and Summer (Glenne Headly), who desperately need to keep up with their new neighbors and become integral components of their community. Summer is a salesperson, too, the old-school kind who hosts parties to sell a line of beauty products. She’s not very good at it, but she’s so focused on it that she has no time for Larry, who adores her. Larry, following Steve’s lead — Steve and Kate seem so happy! — buys baubles for his wife. But take a closer look at the situation and you’ll start to see something ominous lurking just beneath the surface. It’s only when the Joneses are confronted with the unexpected suicide of Larry that they finally discover who they really are beneath the glossy veneer of consumerism.
Yet lonely and unhappy in their downtime, the false family is so obviously and tamely positioned as embodiments of American consumerism-run-amok and the sham joy derived from purchased things that the film quickly telegraphs the sermon to come. Come it does, via the type of predictable tragedy one can see a country club away, though not before Steve subtly convinces men to buy fancy golf gear, Kate covertly hawks frozen dinners and beauty care products, Jenn and Mick advertise perfume and videogames to the local teens, and an equally foreseeable subplot plays out involving Steve’s desire for a real nuclear family and Kate’s developing feelings for her fake hubby.
As a modern satire of the nouveau riche, The Joneses offers a reflective look at the status seeking upper middle class: their shallow pursuit of the latest gadgets, designer clothes and other goods and shows that although on the surface they may seem successful, they are no better off than the middle or lower class. They are living hand to mouth on a different scale. The only difference is the number zero on the bills going out every month. They fall prey to the same flaws of vanity narcissism and they have the same insecurities about who they are in life, like their neighbor who had all the trappings of wealth on the surface but in the end the self-destruction drove him to suicide. They are all trying to display their lack of real wealth but expensive cars and clothes. When it comes down to it, your real wealth is not what is in your bank account. Feeling wealthy is the cause of your demise, because no matter what you buy, the bill is in the mail and at some point it will come home to roost. Trying to keep up with the Joneses, you can charge $30,000 worth of clothes, but you will still never keep up with them. It says something about society: we have these multinational companies telling us “we designed jeans which cost $200 per pair” even though a pair of Levis cost $50 and the $200 pair does not use four times as much denim. They create an illusion and when the consumer buys it becomes real. It is all about status — you can get as much status as your wallet can afford or at least fake it and hope you make it.
Share this:
Posted by JPFmovies on April 17, 2011 in Movie Reviews
Tags: advertising, Amber Heard, American life, beauty products, Ben Hollingsworth, commentary, consumerism, David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Glengarry Glen Ross, golf, lauren hutton, marketing, narcissism, nouveau riche, real wealth, sales, self-destruction, SS, suicide, The Joneses, vanity