Bushi no Ichibun

(2007)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://asiabeam.com)

[Love & Honour]

A simple premise that allows us to explore love, devotion and personal pride in a complex and engaging manner. Behind the formally composed shots, typical of Japanese cinema, there lies a profoundly moving story of the emotional life as well as the life of the mind.

In a rigidly-hierarchical, caste-based culture, there are limited social opportunities for advancement, as such, especially for a samurai who has accidentally lost his sight. His stubborn pride leads his wife to break her chastity with a local bigwig to help her husband find alternative employment. Her devotion to her husband is such that she cuckolds him; leading us to consider if it is possible to be unfaithful for a good reason. The conclusion here is Yes; as is the answer to the corollary question: Does this infidelity prove her love. This paradox lies at the heart of this emotionally-distant yet affecting drama - as love is both rekindled and reaffirmed through it.

Despite the repeated claim that Be resolved you will both die. In that lies victory. Life lies in resolve for death, the resolve of this film is to display the strength of love and its attendant honor - and of how these are both tested in the real world. Here the ideas are more important than the characters in an honest tearjerker with an honestly-happy conclusion. A clever cross between Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Zatoichi that is a little too long for its own good.

(http://nnm.me)

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