By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring: Junichi Okada | Rie Miyazawa | Tadanobu Asano
Original language title: Hana Yori Mo Naho
Country: japan
Year: 2006
Running time: 127
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464038/
Beth says: “Kore-eda’s newest. He was there, and spoke eloquently before the film (I couldn’t stay for the Q&A). He basically said, ‘this is my first period piece, I wanted to do a samurai film that sort of felt the same, but was completely different from, the
other ones you’ve probably seen’, and I have to say, his intro was spot-on. I really liked this film – what he did was simply to place the samurais into the societal context. You know, what happens when they’re not employed, so to speak, behind shogun walls? How do they live in a regular world? The story is about a young man, trained in samurai ways, who is trying to avenge his father’s death while also trying to get by and make ends meet in the peasant village he’s moved to while he plots his quest. However, the story is more about the life of the whole village, how it and its occupants, whether samurai or no, manage to survive in the tumult of the Edo period. 4 cats.”