Writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s thoughtful and hilarious take on the samurai genre…
There have been plenty of films that concern themselves with showing superhuman prowess of samurai fighters. Few, however, suggest that that might all have been pretty normal, if not actually a bit useless.
Soza (Junichi Okada) lives a life of squalor in an Edo period slum. His father’s dying wish was that he avenge his death, but Soza has a few problems with that, not least of which is he’s useless as fighter. He also isn’t really concerned with the whole vengeance thing anyway, being more interested in teaching reading and writing in the local community - a rather pointless occupation for a swordsman, so he’s told.
Even his own clan are ashamed of him, but amongst the rag tag peasants Soza starts to find both a sense of purpose and even true happiness. He even begins to fall for a local widow Osae (Rie Miyazawa, Ashura, The Twilight Samurai, Peony Pavilion), fast becoming a surrogate father for her son. But when the community is threatened by the local landlords greed can Soza hatch a plan that will save both his own dignity and the homes of all his new friends?
Set against the famous (and very true) legend of the 47 master less ronin of Ako, writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s (Afterlife, Nobody Knows) approach mirrors the same irrelevance that has dominated other filmmakers recent takes on the samurai genre recently. Deconstructing familiar storylines by introducing a whole new perspective, it’s part of the same breed that has recently spawned films like Yôji Yamada’s Twilight Samurai and Takeshi Kitano’s Zatoichi. In fact it doesn’t matter if you don’t know about the Ako legend, other than remembering the number 47.
There’s also more than a passing nod to Akira Kurosawa. Soza’s fellow slum residents themselves are not unlike Kurosawa’s peasant characters in The Hidden Fortress. And Kore-eda deliberately references the trademark Kurosawa sweep between scenes that George Lucas liked so much- though in the more glamorous form or a swirl.
Kore-eda uses a lighter touch, filling his movie with hearty comedy and often broad if not vulgar humour. He even has the 47 ronin running around more like Life Of Brian’s People’s Front of Judea (or should that be the Judean People’s Front?) Dispelling the myth with a rather less spectacular truth (as Kurosawa often did) Kore-eda disguises what is an intelligent re-imaging of the samurai film, tackling head on the issues of empty vengeance and how violence perpetuates itself.
The cleverness of the script and exquisite cinematography lift this far above being a course comedy, with superb performances from the ensemble cast that includes Tadanobu Asano and Susumu Terajima, all truly relishing their colourful roles.
It’s a joyous movie that feels little of it’s over two hours in length, and the sort of warm, glowing world view that puts a smile on your face when you leave the cinema. And you can’t say better than that…
Hana was released as part of the London Film Festival. A wider release in the UK is yet to be announced.
