Shinobi: Heart Under Blade
Oct. 28th, 2008 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sechan19The first time I watched this movie, I didn't appreciate it that much. This is probably because the film is loosely based on Romeo and Juliette, a play that I really hate, and because I watched it for the first time at about two o'clock in the morning during a bout of insomnia--not the best time for reflection.
I gave it a second try, however, before sending it back to netflix in quest of something else, because it was simply such a beautiful film (both visually and musically) that I couldn't help myself. I'm glad I did.
This movie, though possessed of minor flaws, is really excellent. It is a Romeo-and-Juliette tale, but it manages to go beyond that by dispensing with the tawdry themes of hate in a rather succinct fashion. In this tale, the main characters do come from families that hate one another, but that hatred is so long-standing, and so ever-present, as to have become entirely mundane.
The people in this film are fighting one another, not out of hate (although that is the avowed reason) but simply because they know of no other way to live their life except in the pursuit of death. In a way, their meeting in battle is a kind of romance--the only time any of them ever feel alive. Into this environment come our star-crossed lovers: one a man who believes that their clans can be more than they ever were before, one a woman who fears that people can escape neither their nature nor their fate.
I won't tell you who the film ultimately deems to have the right of the issue, but I will say that upon reflection I found the presentation of this conflict ingeniously profound. And I really enjoyed it.
I gave it a second try, however, before sending it back to netflix in quest of something else, because it was simply such a beautiful film (both visually and musically) that I couldn't help myself. I'm glad I did.
This movie, though possessed of minor flaws, is really excellent. It is a Romeo-and-Juliette tale, but it manages to go beyond that by dispensing with the tawdry themes of hate in a rather succinct fashion. In this tale, the main characters do come from families that hate one another, but that hatred is so long-standing, and so ever-present, as to have become entirely mundane.
The people in this film are fighting one another, not out of hate (although that is the avowed reason) but simply because they know of no other way to live their life except in the pursuit of death. In a way, their meeting in battle is a kind of romance--the only time any of them ever feel alive. Into this environment come our star-crossed lovers: one a man who believes that their clans can be more than they ever were before, one a woman who fears that people can escape neither their nature nor their fate.
I won't tell you who the film ultimately deems to have the right of the issue, but I will say that upon reflection I found the presentation of this conflict ingeniously profound. And I really enjoyed it.
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Date: 2008-10-29 03:19 am (UTC)I loved him in NHK's Shinsengumi!
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Date: 2008-10-29 12:12 pm (UTC)