Samurai Rebellion
Director: Masaki Kobayashi
Year Released: 1967
Rating: 2.0
One of the omnipotent lords of feudal Japan arranges a marriage between the son of a local samurai and the lord's mistress - when they unexpectedly fall in love and bear a child together, the lord decides he wants his mistress back, leading to the title 'rebellion,' led mostly by the young man's father (Toshiro Mifune). The point to a lot of these samurai movies (and you can pretty much name any) is resistance to authority (always corrupt) by the 'humble' - and this movie's no different - but it takes its sweet old time getting moving, with the first hour and a half devoted to people in costume sitting in carefully arranged patterns and arguing - the staginess gives way to swordplay (and a downbeat ending) only in the last half-hour.
