A Shakespearean story of passion and honor. Watanabe and Kesa are a happily married couple of the ruling class in 1330s Japan. He's a peaceful, kind, good-natured gentleman. She's quiet, obedient, and plays the koto with delicacy -- my kind of woman. But then there's the warrior Morito. He's headstrong and bullying. He develops a passion for Kesa. He constantly natters Watanabe, trying to chivvy him into a sword fight but Watanabe is too dignified and equally self confident.
The public favors Watanabe and when he loses a horse race to the grimly determined Morito, his friends try to make excuses for him. "You refused to whip your horse, didn't you?" But it's infra dig. "No, he was the more skilled rider." Morito forces Kesa into a plot to kill Watanabe, so they can be together, but she loves her husband. I don't think I'll get into the plot any further.
The thing is a visual pageant. You've rarely seen colors come alive in quite this way. Not lurid, like a slasher movie, but very carefully matched against one another. A crimson banner rises into a crisp blue sky. Damme, the Japanese and the Chinese have a taste for things like colors and composition.
Morito's bull headedness come across as overdone. It's a weakness in these kinds of films. The bad guy tends to shout and rave loudly. Not always. The sword fights are graceless, quick, and bloodless. Kurasawa handled them with more style.
It may be a little test of endurance to get into it at first. The opening has a narration explaining some of Japanese history that turns out to be of little relevance to the main plot. The story has nothing to do with politics. It pits reason and common sense against misplaced emotion. Try it for half an hour, then decide.
The public favors Watanabe and when he loses a horse race to the grimly determined Morito, his friends try to make excuses for him. "You refused to whip your horse, didn't you?" But it's infra dig. "No, he was the more skilled rider." Morito forces Kesa into a plot to kill Watanabe, so they can be together, but she loves her husband. I don't think I'll get into the plot any further.
The thing is a visual pageant. You've rarely seen colors come alive in quite this way. Not lurid, like a slasher movie, but very carefully matched against one another. A crimson banner rises into a crisp blue sky. Damme, the Japanese and the Chinese have a taste for things like colors and composition.
Morito's bull headedness come across as overdone. It's a weakness in these kinds of films. The bad guy tends to shout and rave loudly. Not always. The sword fights are graceless, quick, and bloodless. Kurasawa handled them with more style.
It may be a little test of endurance to get into it at first. The opening has a narration explaining some of Japanese history that turns out to be of little relevance to the main plot. The story has nothing to do with politics. It pits reason and common sense against misplaced emotion. Try it for half an hour, then decide.