Love and Honor - Japanese Samurai Movie

Bushi No Ichibun - the last movie in Yamada Yoji's samurai trilogy

Renowned director Yamada Yoji brings his acclaimed samurai trilogy to a beautiful close with Love and Honor (a.k.a. Bushi no Ichibun). Like Twilight Samurai and Hidden Blade, Love and Honor is based on the works of Fujisawa Shuhei, and the story follows a familiar arc, portraying a samurai's struggle for honor in the face of harrowing challenges.

While his previous two films were helmed by screen veterans Sanada Hiroyuki and Nagase Masatoshi, for Love and Honor Yamada chose pop icon Kimura Takuya as the film's star. The casting initially drew skepticism as, though Kimura had appeared in many television dramas, he had little film experience. Kimura, however, made the role his own, delivering a career-defining performance. Under Yamada's assured hand, the rich aesthetics and restrained acting give way to an increasingly emotional and intense story that culminates with a gripping sword duel. Winning both at the box office and with critics, Love and Honor just might be the best of the trilogy.

Summary

Original title: 武士の一分 / Bushi No Ichibun
Country: Japan
Year: 2006
Genre: Drama, Romance
IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
Language: Japanese
Runtime: 121 min
Companies: Bushi no Ichibun Seisaku Iinkai, Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo
Official site: www.ichibun.jp

Plot

Though he is of low rank with modest means, young samurai Mimura Shinnojo (Kimura Takuya) has a fairly happy and stable life with his loving wife Kayo (Dan Rei). All this comes crashing down, however, when Shinnojo, as the lord's food taster, eats poisoned shellfish and becomes blind. Distressed by his inability to support the household, he turns violent and resentful, and even considers ending his own life to redeem his name. At the urging of unsympathetic relatives, Kayo seeks the assistance of captain Shimada Toya (Bando Mitsugoro), who uses his influence to help Shinnojo retain his income and rank. As the rumors begin to get louder, Shinnojo becomes increasingly troubled that he may be losing his wife and honor to another man...

Cast

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Yamada Yoji's samurai trilogy

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Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei) movie

The first film in Yamada Yoji's acclaimed samurai trilogy, The Twilight Samurai presents a touching cinematic masterpiece about love and agony starring Sanada Hiroyuki (The Last Samurai) and Miyazawa Rie. Yamada Yoji has made every effort to display...

Love and Honor - Japanese Samurai Movie

Renowned director Yamada Yoji brings his acclaimed samurai trilogy to a beautiful close with Love and Honor (a.k.a. Bushi no Ichibun). Like Twilight Samurai and Hidden Blade, Love and Honor is based on the works of Fujisawa Shuhei, and the story foll...

Love And Honor Trailer

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Curious facts

Did you know that..

Director Yamada Yoji, popular for his series "It's Tough Being a Man" ("Otoko Wa Tsurai Yo") which started in 1969 and is the world's longest theatrical film series about a bad luck lovelorn peddler named Tora San, has won innumerable awards for his work.
Love and Honor is the third and final film in Yamada Yoji's samurai trilogy. The first one was The Twilight Samurai and second one was The Hidden Blade.
As all films from trilogy Love and Honor is based on the novel by Shuhei Fujisawa. This time Yamada Yoji chose short story "Momoku-ken Kodama-gaeshi".
Shuhei Fujisawa is one of Japan's most revered authors of samurai fictionis. Over fifty of his books were published with circulation about 23 millions copies, including both full-length novels and short story anthologies through the course of his lifetime. In 1973, Shuhei received the Naoki Award for Ansatsu No Nenrin (Annals of Assassination), establishing himself as a leading author of period stories. He would go on to win six further prestigious literary awards.
Love and Honor was released on December 1st 2006 and it's demonstration continued till April 3, 2007 (a month longer than initially planned due to huge number of viewers). It earned a total of 4,000,085,200 yen ($33,899,027) on 3,395,426 admissions. It is now the biggest hit of Yamada's four-year career and the most successful Shochiku's movie in 2006.
Takuya Kimura who commonly called "The Sexiest Man in Japan" is the most popular young star on TV and pop scene.
Love and Honor was nominated in all 13 categories for the 30th Japan Academy Awards, but Takuya Kimura, who was nominated for Best Actor was forced to decline the nomination, cause of his agency Johnny's Jimusho. Official explaination by director Johnny Kitigawa was that "he doesn't need to compete with the other nominees."
This refusal mean that the film missed its chance at a Japan Academy Awards total sweep.
The film won 3 Japanese Academy awards for Best Cinematography
(Mutsuo Naganuma), Best Lighting (Takeshi Nakasu), Best Supporting Actor (Takashi Sasano) in 2007. Rei Dan won Best New Actress awards in Blue Ribbon Awards and Kinema Junpo Awards and Sponichi Grand Prize New Talent Award of Mainichi Film Concours. Takashi Sasano won Best Supporting Actor award in Kinema Junpo Awards and Mainichi Film Concours.
Love and Honor also was demonstrated on Berlin Festival's "Panorama".

Love and Honor posters, shots and photos

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Love and Honor Featured Reviews

by expert sites

Midnight Eye, by Nicholas Rucka
http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/love-and-honor.shtml
Love and Honor isn't a bad film at all, but it's not nearly as good as Twilight Samurai. Part of this has to do with what I imply at the start: that the film lacks the inventiveness of the first entry in this cycle; in short, there's an irrelevance to the film even existing.

The Japan Times, by MARK SCHILLING
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20061208a2.html
Viewers of the other trilogy films will recognize familiar tropes, including the climactic duel that, true to Yamada's keep-it-real code, has none of the fantastic flash of other films about blind swordsmen, including the "Zatoichi" series. ... That is to say, if you liked the first two films, you'll like this one even more. Cooks tend to improve with practice -- and Yamada's third batch of noodles is his best.

Variety, by RUSSELL EDWARDS
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117932744.html?categoryid=2478&cs=1
Narrative plays out too slowly and methodically for those seeking martial arts thrills, but classic yarn makes for fine storytelling. Yamada's direction is assured and shows no sign of artery hardening.

The New York Times, by JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/movies/02love.html?ref=movies
"Love and Honor," the final episode in Yoji Yamada's samurai trilogy, maintains the grace and resonance of its predecessors as well as their focus on class inequality.

Lunapark6, by luna6
http://lunapark6.com/love-and-honor.html
The movie gets better and better with each passing minute, until you are literally left gripping the armchairs of your seat while watching the final duel between the now blind Shinnojo and the lecherous Shimada Toya. Highly recommended.

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