An Honest Review

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2016)

I'm changing my review on this after re-watching it and, well, seeing the politics of today.
On one hand, I still really think that we took the wrong side of this, given how the shogunate treated the peasants. And I can't really get behind that kind of oppression. So, I really don't like that part of what they were fighting for.
Then again, being older and wiser, I also can't understand the need to exterminate any culture as thoroughly as westernization side was attempting to do. That doesn't fit with me either, especially now when we are seeing a war on culture that has no intent to reform, just destroy.
So there is a middle line here and I kind of take that path at the moment. I'm not a fan of the total destruction of tradition and culture of any kind.
That being the case...it is a bit melodramatic, but it's not bad. It is done with an eye to beauty and you have to respect that, at least I do. And, honestly, I believe that traditions are worth fighting for, as is a culture.
I believe that this teaches a subtle lesson, that it's better to reform what is bad and preserve what is good without an eye to extermination. Tradition and culture need not be eliminated with such brutality, there is no sense in telling a people that their way of life is wrong.
"We can not forget who we are, or where we come from," and I believe that is true. There is nothing wrong with that statement.