• 荒木又右衛門 決闘鍵屋の辻 (Vendetta for a Samurai)

6/10/23 (Sat)

Mori Kazuo’s 1952 film is based on the Igagoe vendetta, one of Japan’s three great vendettas alongside the Soga brothers (referenced in the film) and the 47 Ronin. The story has been memorialized on many occasions, most notably in one of the great plays of Bunraku and Kabuki theater (which lasts a miniseries-sized 7-8 hours if done in full) as well as dozens of films and television dramas. Mori, however, digs behind the legend to tell his distinctive version. Much credit goes to the script by no less than Kurosawa Akira, who must have had his hands full in the director’s chair after the global fame of the previous year’s Rashomon and that year’s Ikiru. The Japanese title is literally Showdown at Kagiya Crossing, which I actually prefer. (That would also avoid confusion with Mori’s later Samurai Vendetta, which has the much more evocative Japanese title Hakuoki (Chronicle of the Pale Pink Cherry Blossoms). English titlists need a better imagination.)

An overwrought opening chambara scene of intrepid derring-do turns out to be an amusing spoof of a legend in which Mataemon is said to have killed 36 men alongside his brave troupe. The narration reveals that the truth was quite different, and the film thereafter examines the real story as drawn from the historical records, at least as interpreted by Mori and Kurosawa. Heroes and villains are not as clear cut as their Kabuki counterparts, and the showdown is nowhere near the photogenic epic that we are expecting.

Mataemon (Mifune Toshiro) and his pal Jinzaemon (Shimura Takashi) find themselves on opposite sides of the vendetta. They realize that they have to set aside their feelings under the way of the warrior and aim to kill the other when the time comes. They exchange a friendly cup of sake, wish each other well, and part.

Mataemon lays out an intricate plan in which the men will ambush the ruling daimyo as he and his retinue pass through a small town. The ending is not in question given the story’s fame, but the fun is in getting there. The movie, which rolls out like High Noon more or less in real time, is less about the battle itself than the tense preparation for the event and the long sweaty wait for the enemy to arrive. The warriors become increasingly anxious as the clock ticks away, knowing that this could be their triumphant moment or their funeral. They stand in the shadows of homes and shops, peeking out down the dusty street along which the procession is supposed to come. The director has a great eye for detail: the profuse sweating, the dread in the would-be attackers’ eyes, the terrified townsmen around them, the long lonely street, and the deathly silence.

The atmosphere is broken somewhat by the use of flashbacks, a favorite technique of Kurosawa around this time, as each of the warriors reflects on what brought him to that point. That’s an interesting idea in theory but not handled as well as in other films; while the flashbacks provide essential detail, they let a lot of the air out of the tension. I wonder what Kurosawa would have done with this as director.

Still, the film is masterful as the caravan approaches in the final 20 minutes. When the surprise attack begins, Mataemon, who admits beforehand that he has never used a sword, maintains his steely nerve and carries out his promised face-off with his friend with impressive efficiency. The others, however, are fearful and shaking, helped only by the fact that their enemies behave the same. They are reluctant warriors driven by a thoughtless obeisance to a samurai code that cares nothing for them. Mataemon forces them to behave like samurai, but there is no question that their hearts are not in it, making events all the more tragic. While exaggerated, it felt truer to life than the idea of ruthless warriors calmly cutting down their foes. It certainly throws a different light on the famous vendetta.

Chambara films in the 1960s came to criticize the code itself, but this film concentrates on the helplessness of the individual and the human toll. I somehow recalled the letters to home by suicide bombers in the Kamikaze Museum in Chiran, Kyushu, a former kamikaze airbase, which suggest strongly that the fighters, largely teenagers, did not want to die but did so anyway under a mixture of intense social pressure, fear and blind obedience.

The subtitles were fine, but they would have done well to simplify the long-winded conversation between Mataemon and Jinzaemon setting up the story. The names are not all necessary and just make things confusing. Also, there’s no need to translate shop names like Kagiya (Key House) or Toraya (Tiger House), which are just names, not sellers of keys or tigers.

Mori handles the fight scenes well enough, avoiding undue blood and gore for the most part as per the standard for those times. I just wish he had tightened the script and better integrated the flashbacks. He is superb, however, at building the tension toward the end as the men prepare for the daimyo’s arrival, and the final battle is well worth the wait. Mifune and Shimura do their usual fine work and are surrounded by an able cast, with Kodo Kokuten making the most of the minor role of the terrified innkeeper. The film is a unique take on a well-worn story.