Long, but really, really good.

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2001)

I knew there was probably going to be an awful lot of talking when I started watching this movie, and I was right, and not all of it is all that exciting, but it's all there for a reason, and it's all worth it by the end. Never sure whether to like or hate anyone, want to feel sorry for Lord Hidetora but never quite can, but eventually do, because he's a human being. Both battle scenes are breathtaking, in completely different ways. The first was so sorrowful and awful and the second just unfathomable, just not possible, there there in front of you, and in the end, both are equally pointless, needless, horrible in their destruction, yet sorrowfully just. It's amazing that a film that runs for 160 minutes and is only happy for the first five can have the bottom fall out of it so heart-wrenchingly at the end. That after so much time wandering through such an unhappy world can take what little hope, what little joy, may be left, and snatch it away so breathlessly and finally. To be a part of this world so long and to be left so empty is just an astonishing thing to me. I recommend making it a two-night event, and having something dutiful to do with your hands while you watch, especially the second night. I drilled holes in pieces of pipe, which will one day be a xylophone, with a hand-drill. Knitting would also have been good.