The Loyal 47 Ronin The Loyal 47 Ronin

he story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder.

Toshirô Mifune Takashi Shimura Tatsuya Mihashi Hakuô Matsumoto Yûzô Kayama Akira Takarada Yosuke Natsuki Makoto Satô Tadao Takashima Seizaburô Kawazu Daisuke Katô Keiju Kobayashi Ryô Ikebe Setsuko Hara Yôko Tsukasa Reiko Dan Yuriko Hoshi Yumi Shirakawa Kumi Mizuno Mie Hama

action foreign history drama

206 mins   More details at IMDb / TMDb

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  • Boonmee

    Review by Boonmee ★★★★

    Chushingura feels like something of a classic as you watch it. The direction is spot on in quite a few places (the raid at the end in particular) and the cinematography is beautiful. However, the length of the film is a bit of an issue. I compare this to something like Seven Samurai, which has about the same runtime, but it's an all-around better film and a more tightly-paced story. With Seven Samurai, there's a basic plot, a few characters and very few side-plotlines. Enough time is spent developing each element of the film and because of the simplicity of the whole affair, the film is able to pull off the long runtime. With Chushingura, there are too many different…

  • Lise

    Review by Lise ★★★ 6

    An epic tale of a group of ronin who avenge their lord's death, this film is reminiscent of the typical late 50s American films like Ben-Hur with a 3h30 runtime to match.

    Based on a true story, the film begins by establishing that Lord Asano, in charge of receiving envoys from the Imperial Court refuses to engage in government corruption by presenting lavish gifts to his instructor, Lord Kira. Kira takes revenge which leads to Lord Asano injuring him with his sword. For his act Lord Asano is forced to commit Harakiri. The ruling shogun confiscates Asano's lands and all of his samurai become ronin. Two years later they avenge their Lord's death.

    In its first 40 minutes the film…

  • Freeman Williams

    Review by Freeman Williams ★★★½

    I wish I had known the story of The 47 Loyal Ronin better before watching this movie; knowing only the basic outline, I was frequently confused by the sheer number of characters involved. Toshiro Mifune is always mentioned here in the West, but his role in this film is flamboyant but minor. I can't attest as to how faithful this adaptation is of the old story, but it is a marvelous snapshot of how Japanese politics and culture worked in the early 18th century.

  • Jacob Olsen

    Review by Jacob Olsen ★★★★

    First some technical aspects. I watched the Image Entertainment release, I'm not sure if there are other editions out there that are different. Unfortunately, putting 207 minutes of color film on an SD disc is challenging (it can be done, watch the Superbit release of Lawrence in Arabia). In this case the quality is poor, however. And it's non-anamorphic as well, I wasn't able to adjust my TV or DVD player to present it in WS.
    These matters aside, the film is powerful and entertaining. The before mentioned 207 minutes does never feel too long although the action part of the film only really takes place during the last 25 minutes or so. Toshiro Mifune is highly profiled both on…

  • Fraser Mckissack

    Review by Fraser Mckissack ★★★★★

    With a three and a half hour running time I was gambling on this film being a masterpiece. It's close enough. Slow and steady is the order of the day, the slow pace serves to create a believable story with believable characters building tension as we wait until the moment of action, every minute detail piecing together for a finale that left me shaking. Set aside an afternoon and you'll thank yourself later that you did.