Reviews

I watched about half of the movie before completely giving up. I found whatever passes for comedy of very poor taste and quality, especially the part pertaining to his arrival in India. His depiction of Indians as entirely lacking in humour is absolutely unwarranted. I also take issue with his portrayal of Indians as being very literal and ignorant of sarcasm. Anyone familiar with Indian languages and their history would know that sarcasm is a known device of humour from the times of classical Sanskrit drama - we are talking about thousands of years of a rich civilization and cultural history here. Depicting someone as lacking in understanding of sarcasm is a standard racist device of implying that they are culturally inferior or stupid. It also begs the question as to why this individual spends so much time ridiculing Hindus whereas he should be looking for "comedy in the Muslim world" - it takes an enormous stretch of imagination to think of India as a part of the "muslim world". What comes out in the end is Mr.Brooks' parochial mindset in his expectation that American culture and ideas of humour should somehow be immediately recognized and appreciated as humour by someone from an entirely different culture and geographic location. Altogether a sad disappointment since I actually enjoyed some of his earlier movies.

I am thankful to the director for making this movie. The idea of depicting Death as a young companion of Adi Shankara is just brilliant. It also gives us a glimpse of times past and the glory and heroism of Adi Shankara's mission. The only complaint I have is the low-budget nature of the project. The reason must be that the movie was not commercially funded and lacked the financial resources of a big-budget production, but that may be for the better since the director did not have to bow to commercial compulsions in making the movie. A grander production of the same movie in regional languages is long overdue given Adi Shankara's instrumental role in reconciling Buddhist philosophy with Vedic Philosophy and singlehandedly revitalizing Dharma in India.

If there is one thing to be said about this film, it is excellent in every detail - story, direction, cinematography, music, action, I could go on and on. There are few film makers who can turn a simple tale of feudal injustice into such a moving drama.

As the movie progresses, Toshiro Mifune's character slowly transforms into an epic hero - for his sense of honour and his love for his Son for which he is ready to defy his own honour-bound Samurai's oath, to rebel against the very world he lives in. The heroism and integrity of his sacrifice are presented in exquisite detail with poignant dialogue (even in subtitles). This in itself is an amazing achievement when the compared to the trend nowadays is to try to impress the viewer with visual trickery or mind-numbing fight sequences with excessive violence.

I truly appreciate Masaki Kobayashi for the respect he shows to his viewer's intelligence, for intelligently presenting the true heroism of a human standing up against impossible odds.As an exercise, you may compare this movie with the over-budgeted disaster of a Hollywood movie called "The Last Samurai" to know what I am talking about. With an excellent story and great characters with potential for true heroism, "The Last Samurai" is one of the dumbest movies ever made.

This is also no dumb "You killed my master so I will kill you" Hong Kong movie or a "Lone Wolf" movie with it's absurd and senseless blood-spilling. All of you Action movie fans, this is also not a beat-each-other-to-pulp or chop-you-up-like-a-fish movie.

The fight sequences are excellently executed and are almost the best that I have seen so far (The fight sequences in Harakiri must be THE BEST ever).The character of Tatsuya Nakadai is interesting as well in that it is not really clear what his true intentions are - he seems torn between his selfish desire to better Mifune's character in a duel bound up with his loyalty to his clan against his honour as a friend. Warning: So watch it if you enjoy an excellently told social drama and you will see what makes a masterly piece of art.