Samurai Fiction

[Teahouse Keeper]

The Teahouse Keeper is partial to Samurai movies and has so far, watched quite a few, although not quite enough. Thanks to the public library, the Keeper managed to catch more Samurai movies than could have been possible. The latest Samurai movies that grabbed the Keeper were The Twilight Samurai and Samurai Fiction (SF).

SF, produced in 1998, is the coolest Samurai film the Keeper has ever seen. Directed by Hiroyuki Nakano—the Akira Kurosawa of the MTV world—black and white SF is smooth, slick, beautiful, comedic, rare, with excellent, excellent music composed by the lead actor Tomoyasu Hotei.

[TheCubedOne]

The Cubed One also very much enjoyed SF as well as owning a copy of Twilight Samurai. TCO recommends any and all of the Zatoichi films starring Shintaro Katsu. Also the recent 'Beat' Takeshi "Zatoichi," feature film.

Gojoe, starring Tadanobu Asano is a fairly recent (2003) samurai epic.

For a more dramatic and/or nostalgic piece, try "Sleepy Eyes of Death," an older black and white Samurai film, reminiscent of Lone Wolf and Cub, as well as Zatoichi. Unfortunately, this film is only available in Laser Disc format through ADVision outside of Japan.

Recently, the Takashi Miike period film, "Sabu" was released domestically in the United States. While a bit quirky, it has more than its share of honest dramatic moments.

[Teahouse Keeper]

Ah!! TCO!! You saw SF too!!! Finally, someone who's also seen SF!! Wow, you've seen so much more than I have!!

Yeah, I watched some of the old Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu). The library has only a few DVDs, so I saw only until volume 11 (Zatoichi and the Doomed Man).

I also saw the new Zatoichi film and thought it was rather sad when the poor little boy had to sell his body to feed himself and his sister. Those men....it must have been awful for him, the poor kid. He's just a child for goodness sake.

I checked out a review of Gojoe. Very interesting There's a cool-looking, pale guy in there www.thegline.com/dvd-of-the-week/2002/01-03-2002.htm

Checked out Sleepy Eyes of Death. It's actually a series starting with The Chinese Jade. Ooh, interesting. But the actor looks a bit like Spock www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sleepy_eyes_of_death_the_chinese_jade/

Ooohhh.....Sabu is nice!! The male leads are cute!!! The story sounds interesting too! Definitely must try to get the DVD if I can. Those guys look cute!! In what way is Sabu quirky? The guy on the left of the DVD box is cuter!!! www.artsmagicdvd.com/sabu/