User Reviews

The Japanese b/w movie "Samurai Fiction" is neither a typical martial arts movie nor a classical "old school" samurai drama like the ones of Akira Kurosawa. It's rather a collage of different impressions about the life of a Japanese samurai some hundred years ago who becomes involved in a bloody revenge story.

In the beginning the spectators have to get used to the strange mixture of b/w action scenes, narrations, dances, wild editing and a rock and dance music sound track. After a certain time, director Hiroyuki Nakano seems to remember what a story is and tells an interesting plot about a proud samurai struggling between revenge, fight, death and love.

During movie there are always comedy situations such as the witty dialogue between the samurai and his servant or a really beautiful striptease dance Japanese-style by stunning actress Mari Natsuki to an Asian canton pop version of Peggy Lee's hit "Sway".

If you're into Asian hardcore action movies you may be bored by this unusual movie, but if you're open-minded enough for experiments, "Samurai Fiction" is a good and entertaining example for modern Japanese underground cinema.

Style and Substance. That's what Samurai Fiction is about. I was surprised at the many MTV-ish stylistic shots incorporated into the movie, without a blatant disregard for the storyline, incorporating very modern rock into its soundtrack.

The Inukai clan had their family sword stolen by a renegade samurai Rannosuke Kazamatsuri. Swearing to get it back, Heishiro Inukai embarks on a journey to hunt down Kazamatsuri. However, his skills are no match for a seasoned warrior who has killed many, and almost had his life ended until he is saved by a hermit Hanbei Mizoguchi.

It's a tale of 3 very diverse samurais, each carrying a theme. The peaceful Hanbei Mizoguchi, highly skilled, but abhors the use of violence. The cool and violent killer without remorse Rannosuke Kazamatsuri, who becomes obsessed with challenging Hanbei to a duel. The inept Heishiro Inukai, who defies his father's wishes to embark on a solo quest to regain their family honour. Thrown into the fray are 2 ninjas on a quest to protect Heishiro and carry out his family's orders on his behalf, and Koharu Mizoguchi, the adopted daughter of Hanbei, with whom Heishiro falls in love with.

The storyline might be pretty ordinary, on one end, the revenge theme, the other, love and peace. But I suppose these are themes that are quite universal, especially in martial arts stories.

The fights are all done very simply. Stylish, but kept uncluttered. Shot in black and white, colours are used sparingly, except for the coating of entire frames in red when someone gets killed. You don't see blood, but you see plenty of varying shots and angles of the fight sequences, done mostly with the help of a crane.

What works for me are the comedic characters like Heishiro's friends, early in the beginning, in their run up (pardon the pun) to catching Kazamatsuri. Also, the soundtrack is totally awesome, unlike the use of traditional music to spice up the fights. You might also know that Ronnosuke Kazamatsuri is played by real life rocker Tomoyasu Hotei, who also did that excellent track Battle Without Honor or Humanity, used in the Kill Bill Vol 1 movie.

It's weird to notice that this movie is actually billed as Episode 1. It's been 8 years and I'm not aware of a sequel or continuation in place. But I guess Samurai Fiction has already told the story it wants to tell, and there shouldn't be a need for a follow up.

Code 1 DVD contains the movie and a making of documentary, and a separate disc containing bloopers, cast biographies, how two scenes actually looked in colour, the trailers, and an entire 1 hour feature on the making of the Samurai Fiction, which showed that a simple movie also has its fair share of difficulties, and Mother Nature did its best to stall production.

This is a well presented movie with very interesting camera work and music.

In late 17th century, a samurai is wrongly accused to be stealing the clan's treasured sword, and has no choice but to kill the accuser on the spot and flee with the sword.

The son of a clan's high official pursues him with 3 friends, to the dismay of his father who sends ninjas to protect them, knowing their swordsmanship is far from being good.

This story uses the traditional Japanese principles of irremediable fate, where the characters are drawn towards actions because of the pressure of duty, sense of righteousness and pride. This contrasts with the American good-vs-bad approach to storytelling.

A lot of subtle Japanese humor with situational comedy, silliness and awkward personalities that you'll appreciate more if you learn Japanese stereotypical behaviors or understand some of their social culture.

"Samurai Fiction": Definitely worth watching - I thought it was a little slow at first (and a little sparse and inconsistent with the humour), but it definitely got better at the end. It won't make you more of a Hotei Tomoyasu fan (boy, he looks weird - almost like a manga character... like "Jei" in Stan Sakai's "Usagi Yojimbo"), and the swordplay won't exactly blow you away, but the adaptation of the black & white (with selective colour, a la "Rumblefish") genre is excellent. Being a Kurosawa fan, I especially liked the general "feel" of the cinematography and the video transfer, as it was digitally modified to add graininess and capture that circa-1950's TOHO ambiance. Critical attention was paid to camera angles, set design, character development and mannerisms, all playing true to the Kurosawa-esque model and at the same time sparing no opportunity for the sight gag and comedic element. Yes, for the Hirosue Ryoko fans-in-denial, the female lead (Ogawa Tamaki) bears a somewhat close resemblance (slightly less boyish), but that's besides the point. The movie felt like it was part of an Ulfuls music video at times (I think it was "Guts Daze"), which was exactly what made it so good. Highly recommended.

I watched this movie, anticipating a reincarnation of Kurosawa samurai movies... Boy i was in for a surprise. This movie is funny, lite on the heart and soul, with a good message. I am a samurai fanatic, so i was disappointed initially, then I started to laugh once i realized that this is another "samurai champloo" kind of thing.

Story line was funny, yet it successfully preserves the honor and moral of the samurai. There where few moments of incongruent affect cosed by funny stunts mixed with death (talk about a killing joke eh!).

I liked the music of the movie especially the opening theme, however, i don't think samurai sword fights go well with hard metal rock guitars, even in a funny setting.

All the actors did a great job conveying their message.

The director and the editor had some fabulous shots that make me eager to watch more of their work.

Overall, the movie is worth watching and one would enjoy it a lot if he/she has a good background in Japanese culture and their humble beliefs.

If only every samurai flick from Japan is this cool, then I'd be a very happy man. But then again here lies the greatness of Samurai Fiction. It does not conform to the common rules of period film making. In fact, director Hiroyuki Nakano creates a genuinely fresh look at that age-old jidaigeki genre, by doing everything in the opposite direction. His sense of humour is slick, his presentation stylish and by the end of the movie you can not avoid being moved by the heart of the story. It's actually cathartic for me, a fan of samurai films and Japanese drama/comedy.

Don't be misled by the trailer though, Nakano takes on the film is far from creating a parody of the likes of Kurosawa. SF is essentially a fresh comedy which happens to be set in the Edo period, because it works so well in conveying his message to the audience.

The casting is pitch-perfect, characterization is sublime, editing is effective and smartly executed, while the direction is top-notch and funky. You would also love the art direction, cinematography and best of all the soundtrack of the film. The music pieces themselves are melody narrator of the story, as they carry you throughout the journey and mark transitions of the scenes so effectively.

I must say Samurai Fiction will be half as good without the music, so a special praise should go the the talented Tomoyasu Hotei, who himself turned in such a cool performance as the ronin Kazamatsuri. He's probably the most suave renegade on film after the great Toshiro Mifune.

The film directly opens with a promise of a sequel by directly entitling the movie Episode One: Samurai Fiction. Then we jump backward all the way to the year 1696, the Edo Period. The narrator then states that the character you see on the screen was the narrator himself, 300 years ago. The film then closes with the same narrator saying that it would take him a long time to learn the lesson of love. Enter the sequel: Episode 2002: Stereo Future. Can't wait to watch it!!!

I've seen a variety of Samurai movies before, so I wasn't going into this ignorant (most of Kurosawa's movies, some Zatoichi, Lone Wolf and Cub, etc). When I watch a movie, I don't like to read descriptions or summaries, I just rented it because it was a Samurai movie I hadn't seen (or even heard of.) I went here and read some raving reviews, so I was expecting something rather good. Before I continue, I'd like to mention that this movie highly reminded me of a modern anime called Samurai Champloo. If you liked this movie, you should *love* Champloo. They're very similar concepts, typical Samurai stories set to modern music (in Champloo it's hip hop, here it's rock.) However, Champloo is better. They both also have the occasional anachronism (in this film, it was the occasional modern slang, but that might have been because of the translation. And also probably that singing saw scene. Don't think that existed in the 1700s.)

Anyhow, now what I thought of this movie. Beautiful cinematography, with gorgeously composed shots and the black and white VS color shots were a nice addition, although sometimes overly symbolic. Generally bad editing, they clearly didn't have the budget to show decent fight scenes so they often cut away to make you think something happened that you don't even see. Occasionally they did show something real, but it wasn't very convincing. Nothing a few months of martial arts training can't do. The very beginning of the movie was confusing, with a lot of dialog based on ideas we know little to nothing about. I eventually caught on to the story, but the story wasn't very remarkable either. The typical moral of killing and revenge is bad, nothing particularly genius about it's execution. If it wasn't for the music and other certain effects, this could have easily have been mistaken for a mediocre classic Samurai film from the 50s or 60s. That much was interesting about it. The music added a rather unique and interesting twist to it, making the movie seem a bit cooler, and the action more fun. Samurai + rock music= cool. However, the music itself wasn't always so good, but overall average. Like I said before, if you've seen Samurai Champloo, there's almost no reason to watch this movie, although if you like one you may like the other. Champloo was just much better though.

The way Samurai Fiction seamlessly blends classic chanbara qualities and contemporary cinema is truly remarkable. The result is an homage/parody that pays tribute to classic samurai cinema in an entertaining manner yet still has its own identity and its own unique feel. The most commendable of which is the strange, yet extremely effective humor. There is also the delicious visual style and the equally delectable and entertaining soundtrack.

A very positive movie, with excellent music, on the theme of how to be free as a samurai. Almost all characters are oddballs in some way: a master swordsman who does not want to kill anyone, incompetent ninjas, a son of feudal lord incapable to be a warrior, a bad guy who does not desire any profits of being bad.

There are numerous plays on Akira Kurosawa and Masashiro Shinoda movies, moreover two minor characters bear their names. There will be also a "Zatoichi" blind man who will appear in the midst of the biggest battle to do absolutely nothing.

The title says all: it is what the samurai world could or should be but wasn't; in this sense it is a kind of fable with a good ending for all leading characters (even the bad guy will have his dream fulfilled and will die with a smile on his face). It is a pity that it stayed as "Episode One", though.

The title is of course an illusion to Quentin "Pulp Fiction" Tarantino, but the film only shares with Tarantino a decidedly "post-modern" sensibility: for instance geisha in medieval Japan sing American torch songs. Otherwise, the film has much more heart than Tarantino may actually be able to muster.

The movie is actually about three samurai - a young man who's out for revenge; a ruthless ronin sword for hire; and an aging warrior in hiding, who regrets ever having used a sword to kill a man.

Sounds like pretty heavy stuff; but director Hiroyuki Nakano ( who claims in interview that he wanted to make a "nice, peaceful film") adds touches of humor to almost every scene, as well as some amazingly beautiful cinematography. The film, by the way, is largely in black-and-white, with color used sparingly for emphasis. Although the director got into the business making music videos for MTV-Japan, he carefully avoids the usual choppy editing, rapid scene transitions, and kitschy gloss that mark the MTV style. Instead he seems to draw heavily on Japan's first great post-modern director, Beat Takeshi for influence, and admits to watching Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo several times while making the film. So the film has a lot of motionless images, as well as scenes done in single long takes or with very pare editing. I don't know if this makes the film nice or peaceful, but it sure does make it easier to watch than those glaring music vids I personally despise.

A very well-made entertaining film; the DVD also has a "making-of" documentary disc which I found very informative, and entertaining in itself.

Do not be alarmed or adjust your screen; Samurai Fiction is meant to look this way. Samurai Fiction is supposed to look like it was violently ripped out of time and plunged into the late-nineties like the sudden reappearance of the fedora. Yes it feels silly, yes it looks silly but if you manage to see through all the off-kilter, jarringly anarchistic and sinfully stylistic liberties you'll find Samurai Fiction is...well it just is.

The plot is set when samurai Kazamatsuri (Hotei) steals a precious sword from his former clan. Against the advice of his father (and basically everyone) the wide-eyed Inukai Heishiro (Fukikoshi) promises to take the sword back from the duplicitous Kazamatsuri. Along the way Inukai meets the elderly Hanbei Kurosawa (Kazama) and his daughter Koharu (Ogawa). After Heishiro has a brief skirmish with Kazamatsuri, the father-daughter pair decide to help him on his quest to recover the clan's sword.

If this all sounds like a seemingly flattering emulation of the work of Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi what on earth tipped you off? Was it the details of the plot, the art direction which expertly recreates the period, or was it the fact that characters in the film are literally named after the directors? There is something near- noble about the way director Hiroyuki Nakano attempts to mimic the intensity of the great samurai films of yore. Like the works of Guy Maddin, Samurai Fiction seems to come from a weird parallel universe where the visuals are constructionist but the way the story is told is purely contemporary. You can also tell Nakano cut his teeth on Japanese TV and the works of early Quentin Tarantino to get where he is.

Nakano also left his mark as a music video director for MTV Japan and boy can you tell. The largely black and white cinematography clashes with the film's ear-piercing score which features some electric- guitar laden rock music, downright annoying Japanese pop and, I kid you not, the elderly Morio Kazama playing "My Old Kentucky Home" on a musical saw. Nakano also sets up some head- cocking tableaux that for the life of me I can't tell if they're meant to homage 1980's pensive staring by a beach bonfire or lampooning such overused clichés of simmering cool-guy bravado. What's clear is Nakano has created an atonal echo chamber of discordant themes, homages, references and parodies.

The DVD/Bluray comes with a very indulgent and very Japanese making- of documentary called Samurai Non-Fiction. In it you can see producers and crew members look on with puzzlement and confusion while Nakano explains his goals for the film. "I've only recently seen some of the old movies. I like them but they could be better." In the background cinematographer Yujiro Yajima squirms uncomfortably as we cut to one of the producers quite frankly expressing his doubts that Nakano can pull off his crackpot, MTV- infused vision for samurai films in the new millennium.

Samurai Fiction, despite it's attempt to try something new, is not a great film. The story is un-engaging adding nothing as far as post- modern commentary or new twists and turns. To stop audiences from being lulled into a stupor, the film exposes itself with a topsy- turvy array of bold stylistic choices and odd blaring musical interludes that do nothing but draw attention to themselves. Garish, cartoony and stuck in time, Samurai Fiction might just be unique enough to garner a cult following. But for those who care for actual samurai fiction, or failing that a passing interest in decent movies, I wouldn't bother with Samurai Fiction.

I think Samurai Fiction is a truly amazing film for the way it balances artsiness with more typical film styles, for the unusual combination of traditional samurai tales with modern rock-ish music. I can't quite tell if it is meant to be an homage to Kurosawa and the like or not, but it's certainly serious enough, and good enough, to not be a parody.

Normally, I don't like black and white films, but the very limited and carefully placed use of color helps this film immensely.

I saw it first with no subtitles, and was quite understandably & totally lost. But now that I have seen it again, I'm glad I bought the DVD. Now, if I can only find the soundtrack...

In America there must be thousands of Westerns filling up the shelves of many movie studios. The same is true of samurai movies in Japan. It's just a little piece of each culture. Not that it is the same story every time, but people watch them and feel safe to know what is going to happen (a bad guy is going to mess stuff up, there's going to be some good fights, and the good guy is going to win in the end).

I saw Samurai Fiction after watching a great deal of 'typical' Japanese samurai movies (most haven't even been released in the US) and felt that the music the (with the 'western style' instruments) was a fresh addition to a long line of movies caught up in the tradition of making samurai movies 'the way one's supposed to.' The director (a former director of MTV videos for Japanese bands) also uses younger actors and rock musicians in leading roles in an attempt to appeal to the younger generations of Japan whose tastes are quickly drifting away from the older samurai generation's.

All in all, Samurai Fiction is a fun movie that is easy to watch for those of us that would like a breath of fresh air from the samurai movie scene.

SAMURAI FICTION (4 outta 5 stars) What a terrific movie! It's described as a comedy but, while it does have a lot of humour in it, I think it holds up pretty well with any of the classic samurai stories. The movie is in black and white (with select use of colored images throughout) and I found the visual style very reminiscent of early Kurosawa. In fact, if I had been told that this was an early Kurosawa movie I would have believed it completely. Except for the soundtrack, that is! As old fashioned as the look of the movie is, it has a very modern rock soundtrack by the great Tomayasu Hotei (you know his music from "Kill Bill"). Tomayasu even co-stars in the movie.. playing Kazamatsuri, the badass samurai who steals a clan's revered ceremonial sword and triggers some strong (violent) emotions. After nearly killing a trio of young men bent on recovering the sword, Kazamatsuri becomes obsessed with fighting a peace-loving samurai master who has given up the idea of violence and killing. But maybe he will change his tune if his daughter is threatened...? Great plot, great performances... the actual swordplay may seem a little less flashy than most modern epics but its still exciting stuff, especially when backed by Tomayasu's stirring rock score! The soundtrack might be the one thing that puts people off this movie... personally I didn't find it distracting or "wrong" at all. The old-style movie directing and the "MTV Music" style melded perfectly.

In reality this is the second Japanese film I have seen, the first being "Hero." It is no let down. Once again the Japanese have delivered a truly beautiful and excellent movie. ("Ghost in the Shell" is Japanese, but animation just doesn't compare to these two movies.) "Samurai Fiction" is done in black and white, which (IMO) adds to the story. (Color always seemed a distraction to me - there's more drama in black and white.) Now that I think of it there is no diminish in the beauty either. So nearly everything is perfect with this movie.

What held it back as a 10 is the use of music. At the beginning and in the middle the music is cross-cultural and completely obliterates all of the atmosphere the director worked so hard to create. (Some too modern music is used and some too old music is used - a rather _major_ disappointment for me.) However, (and quite suddenly) the music gets in synchronization (i.e. the style and selection match perfectly) with the movie. And so I slipped quite easily back into the story. But the rest of the movie is so beautiful and well done that I (it) didn't get in my way of giving the movie a 9 out of 10. (Loose these bad matches and the movie is a 10/10.) Human stories are true and dramatic across all cultures. (Perhaps one day God will bless man to realize this.) 9/10

-Zafoid

I feel rather bewildered after reading some of the comments on this board. They all seem rather positive towards this film whereas throughout watching all I could think of was how awful it actually was.

First of all, I felt the ronin-come anime character Kazamatsuri was of particularly poor casting. Tomoyasu Hotei may be a famous singer and guitarist in Japan, but that doesn't make him an ideal role as lead antagonist. first of all, his mannerisms and overall presence on screen was so far beyond anything we have come to expect from samurai behaviour that it comes off looking more like an anime character than a serious master swordsman. Besides his innate ugliness, he commands no presence on screen, certainly not comparable to the great Toshiro Mifune and any comparison is an insult to Mifune's genius. This is even more evident when he comes up against aging samurai Mizoguchi who has his act down perfectly. The good vs the bad here of the characters is mirrored in the actors' performance, screen presence and overall commanding of the samurai behaviour.

Many have also noted the shooting style of director Hiroyuki Nakano. While its obvious in parts he has tried to emulate Kurosawa in style, and in few cases does so very well, too often do we see his true understanding (or lack thereof) of the cinematic artform. His style comes off more like a University graduate than a Japanese professional. The black and white, while understood in its use, is again not used to its fullest as the film was shot in colour and simply desaturated in post. This loses the clarity that black and white film usually allows, leaving us with footage that has all the disadvantages of colour and none of the advantages of black and white.

Lastly, I have to mention the appalling soundtrack. I'm all for putting a fresh spin on an old genre, but this eighties heavy rock simply does not fit. It seems that people are too obsessed with having the music achieve something not done before in samurai films that they don't pay attention to whether or not it is any good.

While it may be perceived that I did not get what the film makers were trying to achieve, I think that is wrong. I understand the need to try and breath new life into an aging genre, but I think that this is not that man to do so, and that this is certainly not the method of going about it. While the film wants to be a comedy in many areas, it also tries very hard to have serious undertones and comes off not knowing which is the most important to the film.

If this is the samurai genre for the MTV generation then I want no part of it. Twilight Samurai is a much better representation of modern samurai storytelling and I think that should be the direction film makers should be taking the genre. Leave the MTV generation Battle Royale and let true samurai fans have quality like Twilight. This amateurish movie isn't needed here.

I think the title of this review sums up SAMURAI FICTION. It doesn't approach the heart of samurai cinema (and I doubt that was among its intentions) but it transforms the form in new and interesting ways.

Whether or not the title is a direct reference to PULP FICTION, the fact remains that SAMURAI FICTION tries to be the same hip, cool and stylish update of the classic chambara genre that Tarantino's movie was for the gangster genre. Whether or not it succeeds or that it's SF's intention for that matter is up for debate and down to personal taste I guess, but either way SF is every bit the fresh breath the stagnant genre is in desperate need of for years now.

As a big fan of both chambaras and jidai-gekis I find myself torn between my purist self that wants to dismiss SF as having only a cursory resemblance of the genre and being too cool and slick for its own good, and my escapist self that enjoys kicking back with an unashamedly entertaining movie. The truth of the matter is that chambara has always been a dynamic genre, one that evolves in cycles that begin with movies that venture outside the mold: movies like SF. YOJIMBO in the early 60's made the traditional period dramas of the 50's obsolete overnight. Ditto for Kenji Misumi's LONE WOLF AND CUB in the early 70's. Even if SF didn't have the same power to motivate change in the genre, I applaud it for trying.

SF is very open about what it is and what it's not from the credits sequence alone. Dark silhouettes practicing fencing in front of red-lit screens. I wouldn't be surprised if Tarantino lifted the sequence verbatim for KILL BILL vol. 1, he has that "homage" tendency after all. It is with this heavy stylization that SF opens and our genre expectations are instantly shifted to this conscious capsule where the samurai style meets a western form.

The rest of the movie plays on this same motif. A traditionally eastern genre delivered with a very western approach. Whole sequences and all the swordfights are edited like a music video, from the tight editing to the music to the frequent use of wide angle lenses and effect shots to the actual music that is as far removed from Toru Takemitsu and his scores for Kobayashi and Shinoda as one could imagine.

SF is content to take risks but they don't always pay off. The misuse of music is enough to give Dario Argento's choice of Motorhead for the soundtrack of PHENOMENA (a horror movie) a run for his money. Techno beats, heavy metal guitars and double-bass drumming are all mixed in a hodge podge of western sounds adding to the anachronism SF aims for. It's not out of purism that I didn't like them, they just didn't feel appropriate for the mood and scene although the music video-ish editing did its best to accommodate them. However the black and white photography is solid good work, the acting is nice and the comedic timing spot on. SF balances neatly on both the serious and comic with an emphasis on the latter but it works quite well on both fronts. Add to that the good swordfighting and the fact it manages to pull off the "hip" style relatively well without feeling phony and you've got a quite good neo-chambara that deserves major points for at least trying to push the envelope of a stagnant genre in different ways.

Ever since the late 70's samurai cinema has hit a dead end and various attempts at cross-genre mixes tried to revitalize it to no avail. Maybe the halcyon days of the 60's are over and the chambara genre is a thing of the past as much as the American western, with the only option left being revisionism (which has also been done to death – I guess re-revisionism is due next). Maybe it will take another YOJIMBO to pull it off its legs and usher it in a new direction. SF is not quite the genre messiah and frankly I can see fans of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie enjoying it more than Mizoguchi loyalists but it's perhaps the best entry point to the genre for modern audiences with no prior experience (especially for young people who usually gravitate to the "cool" and "hip") . That's a success in itself.

The ruling Shogun's sword is stolen, and we follow Samurai Heishiro's quest to retrieve it.

They say parody is the best form of flattery, and this film certainly proves it. Great camera work, side-splitting humour, incredible soundtrack, as well as references to Kurosawa's work contribute to one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. Highly recommended!

What makes this film so intriguing? There's so much about it that makes it so fun and yet so good. It pays great homage to its background. It gives us a view of the Zatoichi samurai film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056714/?ref_=nv_sr_1) in terms of its slow-paced movement and action as well as the plot and emotion of a Kurosawa film (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000041/? ref_=nv_sr_1#director).

There are also hints of fantastic direction. The poster features the famous silhouette fight, which went on to inspire another one in Tarantino's Kill Bill (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/? ref_=nv_sr_1).

The other great thing about this film is it's use of fantastic, trendy rock and pop music which really adds something to an artsy samurai movie. It gives a very nice, slick tone to the movie as well.

I understand that the film is also called SF volume 1. Why isn't there a volume 2, I wonder?

Best I can say for this is the two actors (pardon my inability to figure which actor names) who come center stage in the latter half of the film, the samurai who's carrying the stolen sword and the retired swordsman with the daughter, show commanding enough presences that either could command the screen in a real samurai film. They even make Samurai Fiction's protagonist seem a little more interesting by association.

The problem with guitar-based rock in films portraying this period is people don't walk, run, fight to a four-beat. I just re-watched Hidden Fortress on the largest screen with the best sound available here. Mostly it's scored with traditional wind, string, and percussion instruments. But in a few, I think unfortunate, instances, Kurosawa gave over to western instruments for the sort of "welling-up" music with which Westerners now attempt to wrench emotions their directorial skills haven't earned. I shudder to think that, besides swiping the plot, Lucas may have let Kurosawa's western interpolations inspire that awful Star Wars music. The soundtrack of Sogo Ishii's Angel Dust showed a film can be scored Japanese style-with modern instruments and techniques, and even interpolate, without being destroyed by, Western sounds. But what Ishii does is a long way from playing electric guitar unkeyed to screen movements. In the same theater as Hidden Fortress, months before I saw Toyoda's Portrait of Hell destroyed, to blindly good reviews, by a live indie band that seldom even glanced at the screen.

On the other hand, I mostly liked Ryuhei Kitamura's Versus. Go figure.

Music video director Nakano Hiroyuki offers his superb feature film debut, photographed in brilliant black and white. The film moves at a rapid pace, filled with episodes of great swordplay action and a number of hilarious antics. Popular Japanese guitarist Hotei Tomoyasu not only provides the movie's excellent soundtrack but also portrays the powerful samurai master Kazamatsuri. Terrific performances all around, but it's Fukikoshi Mitsuro as the wonderfully silly Inukai Heishiro and Ogawa Tamaki as the strong-willed Koharu (Heishiro's love interest) who steal the movie.