Synopsis
After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords.
1963 ‘武士道残酷物語’ Directed by Tadashi Imai
After a salary-man's fiancée attempts suicide, he recounts his gruesome family history which saw generations of his ancestors suffer and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cruel lords.
Kinnosuke Nakamura Ineko Arima Satomi Oka Kyōko Kishida Misako Watanabe Yoshiko Mita Yoshi Katō Kei Satō Masao Oda Eijirō Yanagi Shinjirô Ehara Isao Kimura Eijirō Tōno Masayuki Mori Takeshi Katō Kusuo Abe Harue Akagi Kikko Matsuoka Ushio Akashi Yoshirō Aoki Michiko Araki Emiko Azuma Akira Hanagami Ryōsuke Kagawa Minken Karasawa Nobuo Kawai Chōichirō Kawarasaki Tsukie Matsuura Masahiko Naruse Show All…
Bushidô zankoku monogatari, Juramento de Obediência, Contes cruels du Bushido, Szamurájhűség, Bushido - saga o samurajach, Bushido - Sie lieben und sie töten, Cruel Story of the Samurai's Way, Cruel Tales of Bushido, The Oath of Obedience, Bushido, Bushidō zangoku monogatari, Bushido - Schwur der Gehorsamkeit, 武士道残酷物语
Tadashi Imai's Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai is perhaps one of the most direct takedown of the myth of Bushido. It covers 350 years of Japanese history and spans seven generations of a single family. It starts out in modern day Japan and concerns a young salaryman named Iikura (Kinnosuke Nakamura). His fiance has tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills (for a reason unknown to the audience) and he is beside himself. He seems to feel guilty about something he did and to take his mind off the situation he reads his family records that have been discovered at a temple. Each entry he reads is depicted as a short vignette with Nakamura playing the role…
One of the greatest most underrated masterpieces of japanese cinema. Brutal, and depressing as hell, like other samurai films of the 60s this one holds nothing against an inhuman code of rituals that still lives in modern Japan. The film goes the extra step by having the final segment taking place in contemporary Japan, where loyalty to the emperor, and to the feudal lords of the past has been replaced with loyalty to companies. Stomping over human pride and emotions. Relentless and sharp in it's critique of the japanese mentality of sacrifice for the sake of others. At one point one character more or less admits, in clear defeat, that he's not in control of his own life. More people need to see this one.
A staggering achievement of epic proportions.The
injustice handed down generations made my skin
crawl.So much to take in.An underrated gem.
P.S - Dear Letterboxd,please change the cover!!!
The most comprehensive movie about rise and fall of Japan's Empire
From samurai's seppuku to kamikaze
It's all about meaningless rituals
A Buddhist Tale!
Nine generations of loyal state-men from the same ancestry and treating their Women like disposables. A depressing tale like we've come to know and love our Japanese movies pre-seventies that is somehow forgotten despite taking home the honor of Winning the Golden Bear in 1963. Which shows again that this price isn't really worth that much, and doesn't really get you a worldwide attention like a movie coming out of Cannes...
Cannes 1963: The Leopard won against Harakiri...
By the way: This Cover presented here is atrocious to say the least and does such a disservice against the Movie. It's shot in beautiful Black and White and these pictures are color graded afterwards which makes them look really shitty. Who would ever release a Japanese Classic with such an ugly Cover. Shame on you, who ever did that crime!
Edit 2022: Luckily we now have the option to change them ourselves!
Mécanique dominatrice & honneur mortel constant : voici la diatribe de l’atavique résignation sociétale. D’iniquité, l’acerbe vie d’asservi.
Film School Drop Outs – Weekly Challenge 2020
Week 4: Awards - Berlinale - Golden Bear Winner
Though its title and its boxart might suggest otherwise, this film is less of a gritty samurai epic and more of a daringly realistic and subversive deconstruction of not only the samurai genre itself, but the hierarchical social structures of Japan (and by extension, most hierarchies in most societies) themselves. Imai's film brutally examines the cost of maintaining power and what that means for those at the bottom, even if they see their sacrifices as voluntary and honorable. It also makes no bones about portraying those at the top - whether they're feudal lords or capitalists - as heartless, craven, perverted, and monstrous. It's refreshing to see a film that's this explicit in its themes, especially for its time; while I'm surprised it's not more well-known, I can certainly see why.
Living under complacent and blind servitude, veiled by the name of Loyalty and distinction to a extremely self-centered clan, it was what compromised a whole lineage inside the same Karma, same circle that doesn't end, that repeated from generation to generation. Bushido Zankoku Monogatari doesn't only tell Iikura's ancestors story or the deeds of a samurai, but also the story of a entire japanese civilization, and their ancestry, during centuries of subjection, humiliations and overwhelming situations on the hands of their authorities and superiors (that are always represented as sadistic beings on the plot). Cruel tales that matches a lot with historical reality of the country, determining lives of many.
This absolute piece of art touches many concepts like Imperialism, Homosexuality, Feudalism, Fascism, Sadism with quotes like
A samurai is a samurai only because of his lord.
This is my fist movie by Tadashi Imai and boy oh boy I'll be damned . I read it was a Japanese leftist cinema but I'd call it antifascist transgressive cinema in the likes of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Such movies come from the deepest parts of human consciousness . The eternal struggle of servitude shown as a heritage of an individual through diaries of his ancestors now that's something !
I never thought concepts so transgressive will ever appear in Japanese cinema because the genre brings up images of Kurosawa's Madadayo and Ozu's…
Film, po którym chce mi się wymiotować, bo już chyba za dużo honoru się w swoim życiu naoglądałem. Tym bardziej, że to międzypokoleniowa historia rodzinna, która odzwierciedla siedzącą w niej traumę, której fundamenty pojawiły się kilkaset lat temu. Każdy jej członek cierpiał w ramach panujących ówcześnie realiów i każdy z tych członków w jakiś sposób poświęcił się dla przewyższającej go i niezrozumiałej idei narzucanej przez panów. Niby stoi za nią honor, a tak naprawdę są to źli ludzie, którzy kochają wyzysk innych ludzi. Nie jest to trauma, tylko tej rodziny, ale również z pewnością wielu innych Japończyków. Nie tylko mężczyzn, ale również kobiet. Uniwersalność przekazu jest jego najmocniejszą częścią.
Całość może też dla wielu wydawać się według mnie hiperboliczna, ale oglądanie tego od czasów szogunatu Tokugawa do współczesności protagonisty, którego twarz pojawia się kolejno w każdej opowiadanej przez niego narracji osadzonej w przeszłości trafia w moją wrażliwość.
On retrouve le même esprit critique de l’esprit Bushido que chez Kobayashi, avec une violence tout de même plus présente. Sans jamais dans un voyeurisme malsain, Imai dévoile une nouvelle forme de violence dans chacune de ses histoires, Qu’elle soit physique ou morale, la cruauté des hommes traverse les âges. Le fameux bushido est montré comme inique, ne débouchant que sur le suicide.
The movie is very brutal and uncompromising, but it has sort of an uplifting final scene. It's one of the most underrated samurai films I know of. I'd hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a standard Samurai film. Those who are interested in a historical drama showcasing the opposite side of the "live by the sword" mantra will enjoy it immensely. I'm really looking forward to seeing more films from Tadashi Imai.