Quite interesting, but...

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2003)

Well, at the beginning, I would like to say that I liked this movie. It is colorful, nicely shot, and actors played well. However, there are some details which bugged me quite a lot in the movie. First of all, japanese swords never produce this horrible 'zzzzzingggg' sound when unleashed (I think this mistake is quite common for hollywood movies). Secondly, when releasing a sword from the scabbard, you never *never* want to have a thumb right in front of the sharp edge of the blade which is as sharp as a razor (unless you want to loose the thumb, of course). Finally (which really bugged me), the concept of kaishaku, or assisting in ritual suicide or seppuku(harakiri) is completely unknown to the director. Person, assisting the suicide (usually a friend or a relative of a person who commit the suicide) must cut only through the spine *leaving* the head attached to the body. To remove the head from the body is a disgrace and it is usually done only to execute criminals. In addition to that, helper must perform an assistance in a very dignified manner, not screaming like the one in the movie...