Samurai III: Duel At Ganryu Island

Was it a satisfying end?

In some respects, absolutely. I've made my peace very quickly with this series, it was never meant to be an action trilogy but a persoanl story. It's actually really interesting to go from movie to movie and to see the genre change each time, the first movie had quite a bit of action mixed with a touch of drama, the second movie focused more on Musashi's journey with equal amounts action and drama, but this movie fits squarely in the drama and romance department despite there being slight instances of swordplay. I'm not going to bash the movie for not being totally accurate, the parts that did happen were a joy to see in action, but there were slight issues with this. Now I have no problem that the movie picks up a year since the last, and Musashi has almost fully centered himself into his swordsman demeanor being much more calm and collected than brash and wild. But the part that just made me go, whaaaat was the young boy that traveled with Musashi in the last film for a bit looks like a teenager while in the last movie he seemed to be maybe 10 years old, so I was slightly confused with the timeline for a bit. But hey if Rocky's kid can jump from 7 or 8 to 12 or 13, between Rocky 4 and 5 then I can't hold it against the movie too much. I will fully admit the romance did not grow on me much, it has it's moments, good moments at that, but it kind of drags the movie down for me because we're still dealing with this love triangle and it's undoubtedly very soap opera and old fashioned. I have nothing against Otsu but lady, you kinda need to just let him go cause it was harboring on desperate and just plain overreacting in the second movie but now, it's just old. Am I saying I could have made this trilogy better? No, but I could have streamlined a lot and thusly make more room for the important story bits. It's not sloppy and poorly executed by any stretch, but I do wish the main plot would have been to see a very bull headed, very anger and energy filled young man slowly form his own identity and to learn the way of the sword and to cement his own style. Which spoiler alert was the real story of this man, he was brash and arrogant, he did go too far in duels, but as he got older he better understood himself and his lifelong commitment to be a respected swordsman, he had a great appreciation and affinity for the arts (which I'm very happy to see in this movie a bit), and taught his own unique fighting style before putting it down in words so close to his death. But again, it's based on a body of work that was very loosely based on his life so that's kind of the reason the films are the way they are. Am I still happy to have seen it? Hell yes. Toshiro Mifune gets to show a bit of his acting chops in certain scenes throughout, the action bits while brief are done so well, the cinematography and sets are gorgeous, it's a good introduction to this genre if you want something more deep than the usual hack and slash, but even then every movie we have seen this week has an amazing and wonderful spin on it, whether it be story elements or purely stylistic choices. It's a good trilogy to be sure, and should be viewed on it's own merits than the genre that it's situated in. To be honest, I feel the whole movie is worth it just for the final scene where Musashi goes to duel with Kojiro, not only is it the common story that Musashi fashioned a sword out of a boat oar on the way to the island where they agreed to meet, but the visuals are breathtaking. Almost the entire fight is shot in silhouette against a sunrise, and it is so dang pretty. And really you can knock this trilogy out in a day, in about 5 hours to be a bit more precise, and I can think of worse ways to spend 5 hours of my life than to watch these movies. 4 stars, 8/10, another week gone. So what comes next? Difficult to see, always in motion is the future. But I have high hopes.

Samurai II: Duel At Ichijoji Temple

A fair improvement over the last.

The realization just hit that this was very much a Lord Of The Rings situation with this trilogy, each entry was released the next year from 1954 to 1956, all were directed by the same person, and so far the cast has all returned with new additions. I think that's what boosted my enjoyment of this movie was the fact that all the characters from the last movie get to be expanded a bit, I honestly was not expecting to really see them again after Musashi set out on his own. The film doesn't fit the action genre quite as much as the rest of the movies I reviewed this week, it focuses much more on Musashi trying to better his swordsmanship than duels. In fact the movie kinda goes out of it's way not to show a lot of action till near the end, every fight scene either cuts away or is stopped which might disappoint people a lot but I genuinely didn't mind. I found the story to be much better than the first as we see our main character come to terms with his own emotions and seeks to learn how to improve not only his sword skills but his character, with a bit of a love triangle interwoven with it. Now I personally don't care too much for the romance, because I know for a fact Musashi Miyamoto was never married and never had kids, he had adopted sons but not children of his own so I sort of already know where it ends. But the rest of the movie is mighty good! The majority of the film is shot on sets, but it never distracted me from the movie because they are wonderful sets that convey a lot of beauty and atmosphere in them so I just really appreciated the craftsmanship of it all. The choreography of the fight scenes are also good, once again knowing how to charge the scene with tension. I was picking up on a lot of the fighting stances and strategy that were brought up in The Five Rings, from the various holding positions of the sword, to remembering strategic points about how to fight against certain weapons for instance a longsword, and seeing the dual wielding trademark of Miyamoto's fighting style was great. I just hope that this series doesn't pull a Godfather and drop drastically in quality come the third movie, cause I do consider this to be a better film than the first which I already thought was pretty dang good. No doubt we'll see our original cast back once again, it had a lot of good dynamics in this movie that I truthfully felt was better than the first and rightfully so because it's a sequel that builds upon the foundations, so the thought of Musashi and Matahachi meeting again after so long got me excited, the thought of Otsu and Akemi fighting possibly to the death for Musashi's love kinda got me worried because I didn't want to see anyone die. That's good character development, and I honestly can't wait to dive right into the final installment just to see where it all goes and where it decides to end. This was a damn good movie, full 4 stars, 8.5/10, let's finish this.

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto

Humble beginnings indeed.

Full disclosure, I knew quite a bit about the real world figure of Musashi Miyamoto before jumping into this. I have read The Five Rings twice and find him to be a truly interesting figure. Now the movie trilogy was based off an author's work rather than very muddled historical accounts that have made it impossible to discern fact from legend, and with individuals going into this movie blind you'll have nothing to worry about. But for me I had to keep reminding myself this is an adaptation, but the film was still very good. The only thing that sort of surprised me and yet made me enjoy this movie more is it believe it or not has a Hollywood epic feel to it, think Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments. The scope of the shots, the musical cues, the path of the story that plays out, you honest to God could have swapped the original actors with americans and I would bet every cent in my bank that the lead would be played by Charlton Heston. So in a way the plot was very familair in execution, but the concept follows a young Miyamoto as he runs away from home to join the samurai ranks only for their side to lose, and eventually a manhunt is issued against him. Nothing major happens in this movie, it is a very straightforward beginning that will no doubt pick up in pace with the other two movies, but it nevertheless is still interesting to watch. And who better to play one of the most famous swordsman in history but Toshiro Mifune, top form as always with a very strong performance, wild energy, and just enough enigmatic intrigue to make you want to see how the story truly ends. Supporting cast is mighty good with my particular favorite of the whole show being Kuroemon Onoe as a wily and fun priest, he was an absolute joy to watch. The action bits are well spread out, and fit more with the traditional quick slash style of fighting with small groups facing off with our protagonist. Very well shot and choreographed, but the real wow factor comes in the environment. This was literally the second film produced in color by Toho, and it looks great! Yet another element that reminds me a lot of Ten Commandments, but that movie focused more on the sheer size of the egyptian city and the massive number of extras in a scene, where this focuses on the grand scope of nature with still admirable amounts of extras here and there. But the color is so rich and a wee bit saturated that really makes it pop, it's nothing fancy but still wonderful in it's own way. It probably doesn't seem like I have a lot to say about this movie, but I really did enjoy it and we'll have the other two out before the day is done. 4 stars, 8/10!