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JAPANESE SAMURAI FILMS

      From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82
July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572
Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130
Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82
Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85
Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118
Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465
Jan     14         4142     15512       1151        189      712
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398
Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194
April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37
May    4         853     13667         3025     3786     59 
June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95
 July   7          251      8440        1595        817       411
Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532      423 
Sept  22       2228     9326          839        279      124
        29         2190      8859         643        309      108
Oct    6         2102       8255         543        315       59
        19          2005      7528         401       160        80 
        27          1594      8671         433        734        62 
Nov   3          1436      7830         186        458        23
        24          1594      8270         176        396        22 
Dec    1          1633      8475         266        477        28
          8          1324      7894         231        159         36
        17          1653      7359         126        289         35 
        22          1634      7686         137        434         99
        23          1149       6942        100        374         75
        29          1777       7393         147        268         81
        30         1354       6758          154        220       126 
Jan    7         2025       6729          148        285       140
       14          2303       7872          238        430       128
       19          2374       8972          349        493       156
       20          2700     9225          324        703       139 
       21           2777      9091          396        489       103
       26          3143   10,554          606        575         94 
       27          2689   10,261          662        627          71

Summary:
  • Better, but not good.
  • Planning on a vacation to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean?  
    • Population of just about 100,000.  
    • 115 islands of paradise.
    • Yesterday they had 2192 new COVVID-19 cases.  That is 22,141 new cases/million population.  
    • The World was at 459 new cases/million.
  • Also, Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic:  766 new cases, 15,832 new cases/million.
  • Denmark:  47,914, 8261 new cases/million.  Not the time to go to Noma, which is back to being #1 in the Pellegrino Best Restaurants of the world.
  • Slovenia:  14,220 new cases, 7110 new cases/million.
  • USA:  497, 351 new cases (#1 in the world), 1489 new cases/million.
  • New Zealand:  97 new cases, 19 new cases/million.  However, the whole country remains in lockdown.  They were supposed to begin opening up last week, but that has been pushed back to late February.
  • China:  62 new cases, 0.04 new cases/million.  
    • But how accurate is this? 
    • Anyang and Tianjin are still closed, and Xian is finally partially open after a month.  More than 30 million live there.
    • Just heard that Xiongan, city of 1.3 million, was closed off this past week.
      • Located 66 miles outside of Beijing, and is known as their progressive city of the future.
      • Lockdown kept very quiet, almost secretive.
      • Why?  The Winter Olympics begin on Tuesday.

I don't know much about the history of Japan.  My knowledge has almost everything to do with World War II and samurai movies.  

More recently, though, I have abandoned samurai films, as I also have comic book, animated, zombie, vampire and similar releases.  You would think that nothing much is left, but no, I must have several dozen series awaiting my viewing on Netflix and Prime.  Maybe 500 hours of stuff to see.

At one time samurai films, also known as chanbara or chambara, were more about the story and relationships.  Since World War II, as the western world has gravitated towards action flicks, so did Japan.

Here is a Westerner's view of 10 essential samurai movies.  It even includes a Tom Cruise version (Last Samurai got 66/83 scores from Rotten Tomatoes), so clearly, afficianodos from Japan might disagree.  That film, incidentally, was made just about two decades ago.

What I will do today is focus on a noteworthy samurai event, working in two films I just watched.  Chushingura is an example of a title used for just one incident, found in kabuki plays, television series and films.  Movies?  1907, then 1928, 1934, 1938, 1939 (where Akira Kurosawa was an assistant director), the to-be-mentioned 47 Ronin in 1941, 1947, 1959, 1961, 1962, and more.  In addition, there were 21 separate television productions.

The most famous samurai director is Akira Kurosawa, who brought exaggerated death and violence to the scene.  He based several of his films on Shakespeare, like Throne of Blood (Macbeth) and Ran (King Lear).  Toshio Mifune regularly appears in his films.

My very favorite of Kurosawa's is the 1954 Seven Samurai, which takes place in 1586.   Rotten Tomatoes gave it 100/97 scores, a rare feat. The production took a full year, was the most expensive film up to that time,  turned out to be his longest at 207 minutes, and is still Japan's highest-grossing movie.  The seven masterless (ronin) samurais help a village fight off robbing bandits.  This vagabond nature of heroes almost define the genre.  The whole concept was later borrowed by dozens of films, from The Magnificent Seven (and there were 5 of them) to Star Wars.  The original soundtrack featured 39 individual songs, composed by Fumio Hayasaka, who passed away the following year at the the of 41.

I just happened to record and watch two samurai movies this week.  The 1941 47 Ronin (this is the entire 4 hour film) is a historical event from the 18th century.  A feudal lord is ordered to commit suicide under troubling circumstances.  47 of his masterless samurai then await a moment two years later to avenge his death.  Note the theme of samurai with no leader, or ronin.  There is also a secondary love affair, which also can be found in these films.

The group of samurai knew they would be arrested, and got the privilege of themselves committing suicide.  46 of them did.  There was a 47th, but this was the female lover of one of them, on that same day.  Not sure if the title reflects this deviation.  They were buried at Sengakuji Temple in Tokyo, and there is an annual ceremony every December 14.  Here is a map.

Why was this film made?  The military government of Japan commissioned director Kenji Mizoguchi to make a propaganda production for public morale to justify their expansionist and upcoming suicidal war.  Mizoguchi was not exactly happy about this, and ended up making this film that had no samurai action. This was allowed, for the whole point was to elevate the concept of loyalty and minimize war.  Even the major battle at the end was only told.  For this reason, 47 Ronin did poorly and deemed a failure.  This would be like removing car chase scenes in Fast and Furious.

About this film and seppuku, or hara kiri, is ritual suicide to restore honor for themselves or their family.  The concept began a millennium ago.  The closest I got to one is mentioned in one of my Huffington Post articles, Suicide Dreams.

There was an American 47 Ronin in 2013 featuring Keanu Reaves, which earned 16/48 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.  Here are his 31 worst films.  47 Ronin is only #9.  #1?  Generation Um... from 2013.  ZERO Rotten Tomatoes rating.  He's in good company.  Here are 49 more.  Many with John Travolta.

The second samurai film I just watched is entitled 3 Outlaw Samurai, made in 1964.  Rotten Tomatoes 80/88 scores.  Directed by Hideo Gosha and starring Tetsuro Tamba.  Story similar to Seven Samurai, and, of course, the three here are ronin.  However, unlike 47 Ronin, the fighting scenes run through the whole film, and are brutal.  Plus, they live to wander on to their next adventure.  One almost love relationship.

There are, of course, many other great samurai in the history of Japan.  Watch who they are, but I can't leave this subject without mentioning Zatoichi, perhaps the most popular samurai hero in Japan:

  • A fictional character.
  • Blind samurai who travels and fights by sound.
  • Makes money by gambling on dice and is also a masseur.
  • Wandering and sentimental drifter who protects the innocent and helpless.
  • Tries to do the decent thing.
  • Can catch a fly with chopsticks.  So did Miyamoto Musashi.
  • Set in the late Edo period, 1830's and 1840's.
  • Shintaro Katsu, actor, made 26 films from 1962 to 1989.
  • Amazingly enough, here is the entire (2 hours) #26 from 1989!
  • There was also a television series from 1974-9 with 100 episodes.
  • More recent versions starred other actors.

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