geri_chan | DVD review: Love and Honor

I've been wanting to rec this movie for a long time, and since it's National Blog Posting Month, I thought that now would be a nice time to do it. Love and Honor, directed by Yoji Yamada, is a movie about a samurai, but it's not your typical samurai action flick with a lot of swordplay. There is a duel towards the end of the movie, but the emphasis is on the characterization and the story. It has a quiet, thoughtful feel to it, but don't mistake "quiet" for boring--I found it very compelling.

Warning: contains a few spoilers below the cut.

Takuya Kimura stars as the main character, Shinnojo. Incidentally, Kimura (affectionately dubbed "Kimutaku" in Japan, a nickname derived from the Japanese order of his name, which would be Kimura Takuya) is a member of the hugely popular boy band SMAP in Japan. (His bandmate Tsuyoshi Kusanagi caused a big scandal awhile back when he was arrested for public indecency after a drunken, naked romp in a public park, which I reported about in a Youka Nitta IJ post.) In this movie, Kimutaku proves that he's not just a pretty boy, but a talented and capable actor. (I first saw him as an actor in the J-drama Beautiful Life several years ago, and I thought that he was quite good in that, too.)

Anyway, Shinnojo is a low-ranking retainer to a samurai lord. He serves as one of the food tasters who test the lord's meals for poison--a mostly honorary position, since the movie is set during era of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when the country was at peace. His job is boring, but he and his beautiful young wife Kayo are deeply in love and live a happy life. Then one day, his job turns out to be more than a formality when he falls seriously ill after eating some bad shellfish. The lord's life is saved, but Shinnojo's illness robs him of his sight, sending him into bouts of anger and despair and self-pity, since a blind samurai is useless--or so he believes. He worries that he will be cast off by his lord, or retired at a pittance that won't be enough to support himself and his wife. Kayo urges him not to give in to despair, but it's clear that his other relatives consider him an unwanted burden.

Kayo's childhood friend, Shimada, is now a high-ranking member of the clan, and she asks him for help, but he takes advantage of the situation and demands that she sleep with him in exchange for his help. At first, Shinnojo believes that she's merely having an affair and casts her out, but when he learns the truth, he becomes determined to avenge his wife's honor, and begins training to overcome his disability and challenge Shimada to a duel. When the movie reached that point, I thought, "Oh, I know how this will end"--the Japanese seem to be fond of tragic heroes who die for their honor, and I thought it would end with Shinnojo killing Shimada but being fatally wounded himself, leaving behind a heartbroken Kayo. I don't want to spoil the entire ending, but let's just say that I was pleasantly surprised that the movie ended on a note of hope, with Shinnojo finding reasons to live and be happy in spite of his blindness, although his old comrades pity him.

It was a very touching story about love and hope, and yes, honor--and about Shinnojo learning to look beyond the narrow, rigid definition of honor that he held as a samurai. Kimura did a great job of portraying the many changes of emotion that Shinnojo goes through, and both he and Rei Dan (who played Kayo) very convincingly portrayed the deep love that the couple has for each other, and the scenes where Kayo slowly wins back Shinnojo's love and trust after their breakup are especially moving. Highly recommended to anyone who likes samurai films or Japanese cinema in general.