Summary:
An aspiring warrior joins the losing side of a feudal war, sending him on a downward spiral as he finds himself a wanted fugitive in the land he once called home.
My Thoughts:
I’m not sure what drew me to Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy as a means to start my classic film cinema journey, maybe it was the promise of the deadly dance of the katana duels? Maybe it was the idea of seeing the exotic and beautiful 1950’s Japanese countryside on display? Or maybe it was the first thing I saw in some algorithmic ally generated list based on my past viewing experiences? Who can say, but it doesn’t matter, because we’re in it for the long haul now, as Musashi Miyamoto is the first film in the Samurai Trilogy, a trilogy of films depicting the adventures of one of Japan’s most famous duelists, the titular Musashi Miyamoto.
Spoilers Below
As usual, I try to go into these films knowing as little as possible about the story. Would this be a non-stop sword-fight action movie? Maybe more of an epic adventure travelling through distant lands? I didn’t know what to expect as the first scene faded in. We see our main character, Takezo, literally hanging out with his best bud, Matahachi, at the top of a tree in their village in 1600’s Japan. Together they watch a battle taking place fairly close to their home, and Takezo feels the pull to take sides and join one of the armies. Matahachi is hesitant, as he is set up to marry a girl, Otsu, from the village. But the age old adage “bro’s before hoes” wins out, and as Takezo is leaving to enlist, Matahachi joins him.
The pair soon find themselves digging trenches when the battle (the battle of Sekigahara) nears their doorstep. Filled with visions of granduer, they exchange shovels for swords, running past their routing troops to try and turn the tide of the fight. Turns out you can’t just will yourself to be a good swordsman, and they are unable to step in and be the two man wrecking crew that would… double-handedly(?) win the day. Picking up the pieces after losing, Takezo and Matahachi take shelter from the war at a nearby home, tended to by a widow and her daughter. After a while, Takezo figures they should probably head home since it’s been like, 3 months and while no one seems to care much about Takezo, Matahachi has a fiance back home who is undoubtedly worried sick about him. They had just started their plans to leave for home when some local brigands show up and throw their weight around. The women have been stripping dead samurai of their possessions and giving it to the brigands as tribute, and it’s time to pay up once more. But when the brigands return, Takezo ain’t having none of it, so he beats them up with a wooden sword just to prove he’s more of a badass then we originally assumed.
The widow and daughter decide it’s time to go off to Kyoto so they don’t have to put up with these awful brigands anymore. Also because they both tried to get with Takezo, but Takezo doesn’t just fall in love with the first girl he meets, he’s got high self-esteem when it comes to women so he let’s them down gently, but the women don’t take it well. The ladies convince Matahachi to escort them to Kyoto, (which turns out to be a terrible idea, Matahachi is a terrible warrior and it’s pretty clear that he’s the single reason they lost at Sekigahara), even though he has a wife-in-waiting at home, but he’s more of the mindset that two birds in the hand are worth one in the bush, even if those two birds are buzzards and the one in the bush is like, more of a sparrow? I don’t really know which bird is considered most sensually attractive, but Otsu is one of ‘em!
So the trio leave Takezo in the lurch, who’s like “Where’d everybody go?” and decides he’s just going to go home. This turns out to be harder than you’d think, considering he was on the wrong side of the war. He breaks through a roadblock controlled by the local lord, injuring some guys along the way. He goes through all this trouble so he can tell Otsu and Matahachi’s mother that Matahachi isn’t dead, but he isn’t coming home either. Takezo is the ultimate bro here too, because he refuses to tell them that Matahachi ran off with two harpies, a sterling example of “I got you, fam.” Matahachi’s mom doesn’t believe Takezo, probably because she’s a complete garbage person as we see throughout the film, and tries to pull the bamboo hat over Takezo’s eyes, setting a trap for his capture. Takezo escapes because he can wildly wave a stick in the deadliest fashion known to man, and his enemies take the “we have him surrounded, everyone attack one at a time!” approach, which makes it incredibly unbelievable that they were able to win the war.
There’s a lot of chasing Takezo here that I’ll skip over, but for comedic effect just imagine a Benny Hill-esque running around, perhaps to a Japanese rendition of “Yakety Sax.” Eventually Takezo is captured by a Buddhist priest named Takuan who is incredibly mean for a preist. It’s not really explained here what Takezo’s crimes are and why he should be punished, but I suppose they take crossing the borders without proper papers and injuring the lord’s men pretty seriously. Takuan decides to hang Takezo by his wrists in the very tree he once scaled at the beginning of the story. If that isn’t poetic justice I don’t know what is! Meanwhile, Otsu discovers just why Takezo wouldn’t tell her why Matahachi wasn’t coming back, and for that she begins to fall for his reticent and effortlessly cool demeanor. She decides Takuan’s punishment is too much, and releases him from his deciduous prison. They are both now exiles from their village.
Are you trying to defeat yourself, too?
Another “Yakety Sax” scene later finds the two split up while running from the authorities and Takuan, in which Otsu is captured. Takezo tries to save her, but instead foolishly listens to Takuan who tricks him into thinking she’s being held captive in a room in Himeji Castle. Takezo enters the room thinking he’s going to save Otsu and instead get’s locked inside for three years, in which Takuan ensures he is trained in the ways of a true samurai. Otsu, during this time, hides out in the city below, because she’s apparently used to waiting for troubled dudes to come sweep her off her feet. After three years pass, Takezo is released, now under the command of the Shogun, and given his samurai name “Musashi Miyamoto” (so that’s why this movie is called that!) The only right thing to do after three years of imprisonment is to go on a journey of enlightenment, which is what Musashi plans to do, but not before “accidentally” running into Otsu, who wishes to accompany him on his journey. We see that Musashi (Takezo) is clearly fighting his emotions on this one, and as Otsu goes off to collect her bug out bag, he decides he’d rather fly solo on this one and leaves her there, promising he will return and for her to forgive him. Poor Otsu, if she waits any longer she’ll be an old maid of twenty years of age!
She will wait. In those books are many of the things you need. After you master them, I will see you again. Farewell.
This is where our first film ends, with a whole stretch of land before Musashi, and somewhere out there is that sacred enlightenment that he seeks. As the first movie in a trilogy, Mushashi Miyamoto would be considered an origin story of sorts, I suppose. As a film, it definitely shows it’s age in the fight sequences, as I said before they are kind of unimpressive in today’s day and age, but they get the idea around. Heck, A New Hope’s light saber battles aren’t impressive either and everyone seems to love that movie! I read somewhere that this trilogy of films is Japan’s equivalent of “Gone With the Wind” and I can see that. It’s definitely not the machismo sword-fighting film I think I expected. Is that a bad thing? Not to me, but perhaps to others.
It’s definitely great to see the wonderful Japanese landscapes and villages, even on plain ol’ DVD they look great. Of course, being the 50’s the sound is mono, which is dreadful, but they were still a few years away from 7.1 Dolby Atmos, so I can’t blame them. At least the sound is clear! I guess what I was hoping for from this film was a bit more action. I suspect that will probably come more from the next two movies in the trilogy. The story isn’t too complicated, but there are some themes here at play that are compelling, even today. Loyalty, friendship, and doing what you think is right in the face of adversity are all at play here. However, we’re aren’t always in control of the consequences of our actions, whether they are right are wrong. Maybe being locked into a room for three years and forced to become a samurai is a fairly harsh sentence for what Takezo has done in the name of telling his friend’s mom and betrothed that he’s not dead and but simply deserted them. But this is what happened and it’s set to shape the destiny of one man for at least two more films!
Verdict:
Mushashi Miyamoto sets up a samurai story that I think has more to say in it’s next two film. It will be interesting to reflect on the trilogy as a whole, but for now we have the jumping off point to consider. In that sense, depending on what you expect from your samurai films, you may be pleasantly surprised by a technically sound film with a story that gives depth to it’s characters, or let down by it’s lack of flashy sword-fighting and adventurous spirit. For me, I look forward to seeing what lies ahead in the path of Musashi Miyamoto. It is compelling, but not terribly so right now. I need a bit more investment in the character, and so I do look forward to the next movie. But I could do with less chase scenes from now on.
I will be reviewing the second and third movie of this trilogy in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Review written by: