Samurai Rebellion (1967)

Toshirô Mifune: Isaburo Sasahara

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Quotes 

• Isaburo Sasahara : Each must live his own life.

• Isaburo Sasahara : The mats? It's a custom at times like these. So our feet won't slip in the blood.

• Isaburo Sasahara : You be quiet now, Tomi. Don't cry even if I don't return. In that case, he will become your foster father and raise you. Well, then.

  Tatewaki Asano : Lose this duel. Let me remain. It's better that way.

  Isaburo Sasahara : What?

  Tatewaki Asano : Isaburo, lose to me. For Tomi's sake.

  Isaburo Sasahara : No. No matter how strong you are, how perfect your defense, I'll defeat you and go to Edo with Tomi.

  Tatewaki Asano : Then... I will win. Without fail. I will win without fail.

• Isaburo Sasahara : Seppuku? Ho ho!

• Isaburo Sasahara : In the end, we had no choice but to have it this way. We just took a roundabout path.

• Isaburo Sasahara : Tomi, bid your father and mother farewell. Have a good look at them. They are your father and mother. Let us who are still alive listen to them. Let's listen to what they want us to do. No, I know without being told. I know how they felt about their plight and their death. They want us to tell the world of our clan's cruelty! Very well. I understand. We promise to do that for you. We'll topple the Aizu clan from its pedestal!

• Isaburo Sasahara : We can't go to Edo anymore. No one will ever know the story of your father and mother now. Tomi, it can't be helped. But let me say one word. Just one word. When you grow up, become a woman just like your mother. And marry a man just like your father. Be sure to do that. Marry a man just like your father.

• Geki Takahashi : Unworthy?

  Isaburo Sasahara : Yes. We cannot accept our lord's favored lady.

  Geki Takahashi : There's no need to be so reserved. It's happened before, not just in the Aizu clan, but in every clan.

  Isaburo Sasahara : I'm well aware of that, but even so, I wish to decline the honor.

  Geki Takahashi : Decline? Sasahara, that will not be allowed. It is our lord's personal wish. You'd...

  Isaburo Sasahara : I mean no disrespect. We are not worthy of such an honor.

  Geki Takahashi : You know our lord's wish. It's an order!

  Isaburo Sasahara : I would never disobey him, but if I may decline...

  Geki Takahashi : What? To decline is to defy the order!

  Isaburo Sasahara : No, I'd never do that. It's just that we're unworthy of the honor.

  Geki Takahashi : Sasahara. You refuse to agree to it?

  Isaburo Sasahara : It's not about agreeing or disagreeing. We are unworthy of the honor.

  Geki Takahashi : What? You continue saying that?

• Isaburo Sasahara : Well, I want my lord to explain his orders to me. When his son's mother proves inconvenient, he forces her to marry a vassal. Inconvenienced once again, he demands her return. This is cruel and unreasonable. He has no understanding of human emotions.

  Shobei Tsuchiya : No understanding of human emotions?

  Isaburo Sasahara : Kotani-san, our family didn't accept Ichi particularly gratefully. Nor did Ichi herself know Yogoro or the Sasahara family. She was none too happy about it either. But the reason they are getting along is because they're kind to each other and care for each other.

  Shobei Tsuchiya : I understand all that clearly enough. But Isaburo, if you continue to be so stubborn, who knows what might happen to your family.

  Yogoro Sasahara : I don't care. I will not return Ichi, even if the heavens rain fire!

  Shobei Tsuchiya : What? Even if the heavens rain fire... and blood?

• Shobei Tsuchiya : Orders from our lord! Accept obediently! I said orders from our lord! Will you not obey?

  Yogoro Sasahara : It's too late for orders now!

  Isaburo Sasahara : Now, now, Yogoro. Let's hear what the orders are.

  Shobei Tsuchiya : Orders! Isaburo and Yogoro Sasahara, for your insolent conduct and defiance toward our lord, you are ordered to commit seppuku.

  Isaburo Sasahara : Seppuku? It is gracious of our lord to permit it. I thought men would come arrest us and then hang or crucify us. We will bravely commit seppuku.

  Yogoro Sasahara : Father.

  Isaburo Sasahara : However, we want something before we kill ourselves. Bring us three heads!

  Shobei Tsuchiya : What?

  Isaburo Sasahara : Those of Lord Masakata Matsudaira, ruler of the Aizu domain, Chamberlain Yanase, and Steward Takahashi. Bring me the heads of the villains who took my son's wife!

• Isaburo Sasahara : The god who came down in February and brought the rice harvest departs tomorrow until his return next year.

  Tatewaki Asano : Do you really believe that?

  Isaburo Sasahara : No, I was just... The hearts of children are docile and precious. They sing, believing it.

• Yogoro Sasahara : Ichi, I'm sorry. Return. Return to the castle.

  Isaburo Sasahara : Fool! Why do you say that now? What's the Sasahara family to you? What are your relatives' troubles to you? Yogoro, have you decided you want to keep your position? Listen to me. My father-in-law was impressed with my swordsmanship. As head of the Sasahara, he asked me to marry into the family. But otherwise I have no talents. In other words, I'm a worthless, good-for-nothing man. So in order to prove myself, for these past 20 years I have fought to preserve our good name and social standing. So why am I so obstinate now? The cruel injustice involved, for one thing. But your beautiful love for each other has touched me most of all. There's never been a shred of love in my married life! And now you do this! Promise me, Yogoro, that you'll never let Ichi go! You too. No matter what happens, never leave him! Promise me, both of you!

• Isaburo Sasahara : Bunzo, don't hate us. Not only you and Mother will be punished, but our kin too, for being related to such reckless men.

  Bunzo Sasahara : Father.

  Isaburo Sasahara : But remember: Each must live his own life. As for what happened, I don't blame you and Suga for what you did, nor do I bear you any grudge. Each must live his own life. Have a drink and then go back. And tell everyone this for me: I, Isaburo Sasahara, in all my life have never felt more alive than I do now.

• Isaburo Sasahara : Before feeding babies rice, we're supposed to wait 100 days after birth... when enough teeth have come in. But I'll do it now.

• Geki Takahashi : If she appeals to save you as the heir's mother, not as Yogoro's wife, he promised to change his orders from seppuku to confinement.

  Isaburo Sasahara : I don't understand what this is all about.

  Yogoro Sasahara : Neither do I.

  Isaburo Sasahara : Steward, it seems we don't understand what you just told us.

  Geki Takahashi : It's very simple. If you two admit that Ichi is no longer a family member and that she has been returned, our lord will listen to her plea for a lighter punishment. Will you acknowledge her return and live, or refuse and fight it out? Which will it be?

  Isaburo Sasahara : In that case, we ask for no mercy. We are prepared for the worst.

  Geki Takahashi : Then there is no alternative?

  Isaburo Sasahara : None. It's all of you who cannot be pardoned, who are holding Yogoro's wife as prisoner and still insist on doing so. Please return her at once!

  Geki Takahashi : All right. You've made yourselves very clear. I'll ask Lady Ichi now. Lady Ichi, will you save the lives of these men? Or will you let their pursuers come and kill them? Lady Ichi, the Sasaharas are men. Their pride will not let them back down. But your position is different. You have already returned to serve our lord. If you tell them that you sever your ties with them once and for all, then all will be well! Is that clear? If you do, their lives will be saved. We need not ask them to return you. And even though they petition for your return, it can be disregarded as long as you sever your ties with them.

• Tatewaki Asano : Isaburo Sasahara of the escort group... where are you going?

  Isaburo Sasahara : Tomi and I are going to Edo.

  Tatewaki Asano : If this is for the clan, show me your pass. If it's private business, show me the clan ticket.

  Isaburo Sasahara : I have neither.

  Tatewaki Asano : Then I'm afraid I cannot let you pass.

  Isaburo Sasahara : We must go to Edo though we have no permit.

  Tatewaki Asano : You mean to pass from this domain without having either?

  Isaburo Sasahara : Yes.

  Tatewaki Asano : To carry out my duty and uphold my honor as a samurai, I must forbid it. If you insist on breaking our law and passing through this gate, I must stop you at the risk of my life.

  Isaburo Sasahara : That can't be helped.

• Isaburo Sasahara : All the family members are supposed to celebrate this day together with red bean rice and live fish. That's impossible now. We'll make do with this.