(1950) ****¾
A murder has been committed. In a war ruined 12th century Japan a samurai & his wife encounter an infamous bandit. A conflict takes place over the woman and her husband ends up dead.
Three men tell this story to us, one of whom discovered the body of the samurai. As the men discuss the murder we see that the unusual thing is at the trials none of the stories match up.
The story from the bandit & the wife are so different that a clairvoyant is brought in to contact the dead samurai and tell his tale of the ordeal. Finally, at the end of the film the man who found the body clears up the confusion for us.
Excellent! I do so love these old Japanese movies. They are filmed with such style and beauty that you can’t help but be enamored by them. The acting is superb and the voices are angry, just the way I like them.
The first two reenactments left me feeling confused. Then when the psychic comes in to tell the dead man’s tale it really gets interesting. By the time it reached the final scene I was feeling a little disappointed and thinking that they really left us hanging. Then miraculously it all comes together when the woodcutter fills in the gaps for us.
I just can’t say enough about the style of this film. The story is solid and engaging. You can rest assured that you will be seeing more reviews of these old Japanese films from me next Horrorthon.
3 comments:
Awesome! I use this movie when I teach postmodernism. It's impossible to overstate the impact this movie has had on Hollywood--the whole criss-crossing flashback narratives has become so copied and imitated.
But I gotta quibble a bit: if this ain't a 5 star movie, then I've got no idea what is...
You know Landshark I was totally torn with whether or not to issue the coveted 5 star rating on this film. I do believe that it is definitely 5 star worthy. Why didn't give it that final star? Simply because this is Horrorthon and although the story is top notch it just isn't scary. However, I will do justice to the film and amend my rating to 4¾ because you're right, it deserves it.
Yeah, I figured that had something to do with it...not very scary.
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