Genroku Chûshingura (1941)

Director:

Kenji Mizoguchi

Writers:

Kenichiro Hara (writer)
Seika Mayama (play)

Release Date:

March 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History

Plot:

Lord Asano resists a bribery attempt by a member of the Shogun's court. His honesty, however, is useless against the corruption of the administration...

Plot Keywords:

47 Ronin | Propaganda | Remake | Jidai Geki | Based On Play

Cast

Yoshizaburo Arashi	...	Lord Takuminokami Asano
Utaemon Ichikawa	...	Tsunatoyo Tokugawa
Daisuke Katô	...	Fuwa Kazuemon
Chojuro Kawarasaki	...	Kuranosuke Oishi
Kunitaro Kawarazaki	...	Jurozaemon Isogai
Seizaburô Kawazu	...	Lord Etchumori Hosokawa
Mantoyo Mimasu	...	Kozunosuke Kira
Mitsuko Miura	...	Yosenin, Asano's wife
Kanemon Nakamura	...	Sukeimon Tomimori
Mieko Takamine	...	Omino, Isogai's fiancee

Also Known As:

47 Samurai
Chushingura
Loyal 47 of the Genroku Era
The 47 Ronin (USA)
The Loyal 47 Ronin

Runtime:

241 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

IMA Productions

Trivia:

The Japanese Ministry of Information, under the militarist government, commissioned director Kenji Mizoguchi to make this film as a morale booster for the WWII war effort. But it was a commercial failure, being released in Japan one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The military and most audiences found the first part of the film to be too slow and serious. However, the studio and Mizoguchi both regarded it as so important that Part 2 was put into production, though Mizoguchi was forced to insert some close-ups of the stars which are totally absent from Part I. The film was finally shown in America in the 1970s.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Aru eiga-kantoku no shogai (1975)

extremely boring - very disappointing

I was profoundly disappointed in this film. It is 3 hour and 40+ minutes long and not much of anything happens in it. People just sit on the floor in various rooms and say things like what are we going to do, what does so and so think, I'm not sure, maybe we should ask someone else, I don't know, do you know, I'm so confused, etc. This goes on ad nauseum literally for hours.

Kenji Mizoguchi was a 1st class director who made such classics as Sansho he Bailiff and Tales of Ugetsu. Don't don't blame him for this one - he was supposedly commissioned by the Japanese government to make this.