Failure at the highest level

Rating: 4/10 (17 July 2012)

This movie came as a big disappointment to me. I really adore Japanese culture and history and I am a big fan of Asian cinema. I was looking forward to see a film that is considered as a masterpiece by many and has risen to world wide fame.
I was surprised to see so many flaws in this film that I don't even know where to start. First of all, the movie is far too long and lacks of fluidity. The story is extremely predictable and develops no tension at all. The script is very poor and unoriginal. It steals several ideas from many other theatre plays and movies. One always feels that one has seen the same story elsewhere before and in a much better way. The beginning is overlong and should have been shortened. The middle part with the scenes in the field and the destroyed castle include many lengths. The ending is not well told and finishes too abruptly on the other side.
The battle scenes are a complete fail. We see a shot of soldiers shooting in a forest. In the next shot, we see five soldiers yelling and falling from the horses to die on the ground. Repeat the two shots five times and this is what the battle scenes of this movie are like. There is no action, no aesthetic and no emotion in those scenes. It rather looks like a chess game than a true battle.
The dialogues are amongst the poorest ones I have ever witnessed in cinema and I have seen thousand of movies. They are extremely wooden and sometimes so ridiculous that I had to laugh out hard. The scenes including the arrogant, philosophical and schizophrenic fool are annoying. When the old lord gets insane and just always says the same couple of sentences throughout the second half of the movie and shares many scenes with the fool, the whole thing looks like a parody in form of an old fashioned theatre play for kids. Some intellectual people will now talk about the irony that the fool always tells the truth and switches roles with his master and that the poor old man saved the fool and that this action started all the intrigues but this is no excuse for so many poor and repetitive dialogues.
The characters are not credible. The movie tries to include many hints at traditional Japanese culture but these elements are exaggerated and don't seem authentic at all to me. The role of the fool that insults everybody around him but stays extremely faithful to his old master once he has gone insane is ridiculous. A man that shows this kind of disrespect would have been executed in traditional Japan. A woman like Lady Kaede would have never been so successful with her predictable intrigues. Any credible husband or brother-in-law would have given an order to execute her. The fact that Lady Sue could easily escape from the castle and go to her brother is not credible at all even if she got help. One would have followed and killed her and the traitor that refuses to obey his master and its sister-in-law would have been executed, too. It also seems strange to me that the lord's adviser finally kills Lady Kaede without getting the order by his superior while the lord stands next to him and doesn't react. I'm not an expert of Japanese history but from what I have seen from other movies, read from several books, known from history lessons and heard from Japanese that I could meet, many of these scenes don't seem realistic to me at all if I think about the severe code of honour of this country.
After so many negative aspects, let's mention some positive things. Even though the characters aren't credible and the dialogues are wooden, it's not the mistake by the actors but by the writer and director. The acting itself is well executed and should be praised. It's the only thing that kept me watching this flick until the end. To give you an example, the interpretation of Lady Kaede or the annoying fool are well done from an objective point of view.
At the time of its creation, this movie was Japan's most expensive production ever. Akira Korusawa was a big name and he got some good connections. You can see this by the inclusion of many supportive actors, excellent settings and especially many valuable costumes that are created with much detail. The film is quite colourful and beautiful to watch. Only the camera cuts are stiff and some potential is wasted there.
Concerning the story, even though the whole thing is predictable, some of the intrigues are still well done. After a weak start and before a weaker second half of the movie, we have around forty-five minutes or so that are really entertaining and have some plot development. This is the strongest part of the movie.
In the end, there are some positive points to mention but the weaker ones are in majority. It's definitely not the mistake of the costume makers, the actors or the light and sound engineers that do an almost flawless job. It's the fault of the poor writers and the headless director. Shame on you, Mister Akira Korusawa. Even a big name can't save this film that must be considered as a failure at the highest level. It's not the worst thing I have seen but still below average. I definitely don't recommend this movie to anybody apart of fans of gorgeous costumes and old fashioned theatre plays.