A good movie

The main reason why I wanted to check this movie was because it was included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list but I discovered afterwards that it was apparently removed recently from the prestigious movie list. Well, it doesn’t really matter since it is definitely a classic worth a look anyway. In fact, I might or should have watched it much sooner but, because of its huge running time, I kept postponing it for a while. Indeed, the version I saw was 210 mins long so it’s not a movie you can watch just like that, it will take not only a lot of your time but also a lot of your attention and focus. Eventually, did it really need to last so long? To be honest, I’m not really sure. I mean, the damned thing was really good, no doubt about it, and it’s always interesting when a director of Mizoguchi’s caliber decide to increase the running time to such extent. It does also automatically gives the whole thing some epic dimensions and you also get lost in this world when you spend so much time in it. And, yet, 95% of it was about a bunch of dudes sitting on their knees and having some conversations, not really much more than that after all. For example, if you would expect some badass action scene during which the famous 47 ronins would finally attack and kill Kira Yoshinaka, well, you will be rather disappointed since all this actually happened off-screen. What was so interesting with this movie, at least to me, was how they displayed the samurai as strong and proud but also how they became stifled by all their rules and protocols. As explained at the beginning of the movie, at the time, they were going through decades of peace and, since there was no fighting left, all they had left was these rules and protocols which, at the same time, gave sense to their lives but also actually ruined it for them. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was a rather challenging movie, it was really intriguing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

7/10