Summary:
Musashi, ever the wanderer, continues his journey, dueling and gathering knowledge to become a respectable samurai. A journey that culminates with a duel at the Ichijoji Temple against Seijuro, the master of the Yoshioko School of Martial Arts.
My Thoughts:
Here we have the second film in the trilogy, “Duel at Ichijoji Temple”. You’d be forgiven for accidentally mistaking this for the third film, also titled “Duel at”; I guess they ran out of things for a samurai to do. It’s a real story of dual duels, but for now let us speak on the first, and by that I mean the second, film “Duel at Ichijoji Temple”.
Spoilers Below
We start at the end of the first film with Musashi beating feet around the landscape of Japan probably thinking to himself “Man, I should have brought a horse.” But no one ever learned anything while riding a horse, as they say, so in his journey to gain knowledge he does so the old fashioned way. Musashi happens upon a hut at dusk, where a boy apparently lives and also knows that some sh*t’s about to go down. Well, that kid weren’t wrong, cause a dude named Old Baiken shows up, and he brought a couple of his bros with him. They square off, Mushasi with his katana, Baiken with his kusarigama, a ball and scythe connected by a chain (which is pretty awesome). They trade a few blows, at one point Musashi’s sword is wrapped up by the chain, however this doesn’t stop Musashi from delivering a fatal blow to Old Baiken, who goes down like a sack of rice. Problem is, an old man also witnessed the duel, and he tells Musashi that he sucks as a samurai because, while Musashi is strong physically, he lacks the focus and mental preparation of a true samurai. Musashi takes this to heart and continues on his way.
Musashi goes to Kyoto, where you’ll remember his old friend Matahachi ended up, and begins dueling students of the local martial arts school Yoshioko. He pretty much cleans house with them, so naturally he must now make a fool of the school master, Seijuro Yoshioka. Seijuro is preparing for his duel with this guy who just showed up and started laying waste to his students, but is told that Musashi is beneath his notice. Instead they plan on jumping Mushashi in his room at the school, but when they get there Mushashi is gone, having left a note that Seijuro should make the duel publicly known by publicly posting the time and place in which their duel should take place.
Musashi decides he needs to sharpen his sword, and no that’s not a euphemism, so he visits a shop in town that provides such a service. However, the smith there can tell by the way he conducts himself that Musashi is, at the very least, not a clasically trained samurai. He refuses to tend to the sword, and Mushashi leaves in anger. It is here that he learns some humility and how to be humble, returning to the shop and asking again.
After he gets his sword polished (still not a euphemism), he waits by the bridge where he left Otsu many months ago. She happens to walk by and sees him standing there. She approaches and tells Musashi she never wants to leave him, but Musashi is a samurai now and prefers the sword now (seriously people, get your heads out of the gutter) so he can’t be bothered with her. Suddenly all the rude dudes from the school show up, ready to bring the pain, so Musashi has to get out of there while demanding a fair duel.
The sword smith takes Musashi to a place where he can hide out, which is basically a brothel from what I can tell. Here he is chastised by the leading lady of the establishment for being so strict on himself and not indulging in a good time. Meanwhile, Seijuro’s brother shows up and makes his displeasure known that Seijuro won’t just go honestly duel this so-called samurai that’s beating everyone. He deigns to do the work himself, challenging Musashi to a duel.They meet at Rengein Temple, where the duel is to take place. However, we don’t get to see it, instead we cut right to Musashi’s return to the brothel, so obviously he won.
When Seijuro learns his brother was defeated by the samurai, he realizes it’s time to put a stop to all this killing by challenging Musashi to a fight to the death! A duel at the Ichijoji Temple is arranged, however, his own men undermine his authority again by setting up another ambush in the guise of a respectable duel. Even though Musashi is warned it’s an ambush, his honor compels him to go anyway, and he does so. He cuts fools down left and right, all the while demanding to fight Seijuro, but is eventually forced by some pesky archers to retreat into the woods nearby.
It is here in these woods that Musashi finally encounters Seijuro, who tries to explain he’s not a coward, but that he just has no control over his own men. They finally duel, and Musashi lands a strike. However, Musashi shows mercy, since he’s now learned that being a samurai also includes the things you don’t do with a sword. Musashi leaves Seijuro in the woods, very much alive, and runs away from the battlefield.
At this point I’ve basically neglected to mention anything about Otsu, his long lost love from the first film, but just know she’s taken a keen interest in how all this was going to play out, and was there in this, Musashi’s time of need, to get him out of there. The story jumps ahead in time where we see that Musashi and Otsu are living in the mountains by a stream. Musashi is overcome with emotion by all that has transpired recently, and tries to make love to Otsu right then and there. Confusingly to me and Musashi, Otsu, who’s sole purpose in this story so far has been to fawn over Musashi for two films, friend zone’s Musashi, who is so embarassed by what happens that he packs up his stuff and leaves. He declares he will never love a woman again because women are way too confusing and becoming a samurai is easy in comparison. So away he goes, off to learn even more samurai stuff, presumably in the final film of the trilogy.
Once again this film is quite beautiful for the time, with some interesting shots contained within the 103 minutes of the film. The sword fighting action is somewhat improve for the time as well, but don’t expect anything too flashy. But overall, it’s the story and characters that continue to motivate me into finishing this trilogy. I skipped a lot of side stories and characters in my summary of the plot, simply because it would be too much to read. I would instead implore you to watch the films if you are interested enough.
Verdict:
While perhaps not as compelling as the origin of Musashi the samurai from the first film, I found the story of his growth to become a respectable samurai rather interesting. The film is not overly burdened with outright explaining how or why Musashi is learning to become a better samurai, but there things happening here that obviously help to smooth out the rough edges of the samurai. It will be interesting to see where the character goes from here in our next and final adventure, “Duel at Ganryu Island”. Join me, won’t you?
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