My copy of Love And Honour (Bushi no Ichibun), the third film in Yoji Yamada's hitherto brilliant samurai trilogy. I've heard some murmurings that it's even the best and, if that's the case, it will threaten the top twenty five after The Twilight Samurai A-) and The Hidden Blade (A+) both impressed me a great deal.
Yamada makes sweet, delicate and poignant films of the highest order with understated yet emotionally powerful performances always based on characterisation and essential human drama. The Hidden Blade was also very funny. I have high hopes for this and hope to watch it over the weekend and will report on my views!
One sad note, no British or American distributor has picked this up yet, despite the fact it's been out for a while so a big thank you to YesAsia for delivering my sublime copy. Someone in the West needs to pick this up. Although perhaps I should take that back until I've actually seen it.
Can't wait!
4 comments:
Glad to hear that you are interested in Asian films. Hope we would have a chance to talk about them at sometime.
For "Love And Honour ", I saw it earlier this year. Don't expect too much of it and you may find yourself pleasantly.
Enjoy :)
Changed the picture if that's okay. Was a bit small!
I take it I'd pretty much hate these films?
I love Asian cinema, and, in particular Japanese cinema. Japan films, I strongly believe, make up a large proportion of the world's best and my favorite director, Akira Kurosawa, was Japanese. Apparently there is a very particular Japanese style of acting, which I'm very interested in finding out more about. It just seems so emotionally driven and I love that aspect of it.
As for this, didn't manage to watch it over the weekend thanks to the fucking rugby which I'm still shocked I bothered to watch and, especially, that I chose to do so over watching a film. However, I'm expecting great things as I really loved The Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade, the latter being especially stunning (I gave it a rare A+).
Adam, I'm afraid you probably wouldn't like these but you might not hate them as much as you say. Perhaps if I ply you with Smirnoff Ice and the promise of a Jack Lemmon film as part of a double bill maybe I could persuade you to give one of them a try??? Absolutely fine that you changed the picture, I love it but it was far too small!
From Japanese films that I’ve seen, they often have quiet scenes interspersed with action. I think this causes a lot of emotional power to the audience.
Btw,I also like Kurosawa. "Dreams" is my favorite one.
Thank God It's Friday...
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