Day 14: Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)
“Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto” is the first in the epic three-part “Samurai” adaptation of the novel “Musashi” by Eiji Yoshikawa- itself loosely based on the actual life of famous Japanese swordsman Musashi Miyamoto. A sweeping and beautiful tale, this first installment will be followed in the next two days by its other parts, creating the first trilogy watched during the Criterion Summer and, while it is hard to make a judgment on a singular film that plays as act one to a much larger story, I certainly can understand why Criterion has decided to release all three of these gems of Japanese cinema.
Part one of the “Samurai” trilogy takes place in the Sengoku period of Japanese history, the early 1600′s, where civil war has broke out and unrest runs rampant in the land. After retreating in the battle of Sekigahara, friends Takezo (Toshirō Mifune, of “Seven Samurai” fame) and Matahachi (Rentaro Mikuni) seek shelter to tend their wounds before returning home to Matahachi’s fiancé, Otsu. Finding refuge in a farmhouse owned by a widow named Oku and her daughter, the pair’s plans suddenly change as Oku seduces Matachaci and they flee, leaving Takezo to journey home alone with the shame of losing his friend on his mind.
When he finally returns to his village and tells Matahachi’s mother that her son lives, she refuses to believe him and Takezo is arrested for treason. His life on the line, Takezo has no family who will take his side and only finds a defender in a Buddhist priest, who tells the village he can use his methods to straighten the young warrior out. With that, Takezo soon finds himself hanging from a tree by the waist as a way to break him of his will. Days go by and the only compassion he finds is in Otsu, who, one night, frees him from his bounds and helps him escape. From there, a journey of self discovery begins and Takezo will gain the Samurai name Musashi Miyamoto but at the price of his new love Otsu.
Rarely does one feel satisfied with simply the first act of a story, but “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto” is a wonderful film that takes its time and allows the story to grow on you in a way that very few films these days do. Never are we rushed into understanding that Takezo is the hero. In fact, at the start, our first emotional connection comes from a scene between Matahachi and Otsu and it is Takezo who convinces Matahachi to leave his love and go to war. Throughout the film we are set up to feel as Otsu- to despise Takezo for getting in the way, and later, when Matachachi shows his true colors and abandons Otsu, to relate once again, feeling a sense of betrayal. Just like this young Japanese maiden, we grow to see the human behind Takezo’s hard exterior and fall for him as our hero.
“Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto” is a a love story for the ages set up against a backdrop of civil war, which has lead many to compare it to “Gone with the Wind” and I would tend to agree. And much like its southern cousin, “Samurai found praise worldwide, even garnering the Oscar for best foreign film in 1955. If “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto” is any indication to the quality and story craft of its next two installments, then I am truly excited to follow Musashi and see where his adventures take him.
To learn more about, “Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto,” check out Criterion’s page here.
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