Film

Love and Honor (2006)

Director: Yoji Yamada

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

Somewhere in Bushido, the code of the samurai, there has to be an entry that warns against messing with another man’s wife. We imagine it reads: “Don’t do it.” If not, we’d recommend that Yamada’s latest—the story of a cuckolded samurai who cares too much for love and honor to let things slide—be granted its own section.

Low-ranking samurai Shinnojo Mimura (Kimura) performs his castle duties by sampling the feudal lord’s food, testing for poisons, but he dreams of quitting the clan and opening an equal-opportunity kendo dojo, teaching children of all castes the ancient art of swordfighting. When he downs some out-of-season sashimi, Shinnojo goes blind, and his position as a samurai comes into question. His wife, Kayo (Dan), hoping to secure their place, seeks help from relatives, who recommend she visit chief duty officer Toya Shimada (Bando), a man with the ear of the lord. Shimada agrees to help but takes Kayo to bed as payment.

Few characters make the right decisions in this nuanced drama, which is a huge step up from 2002’s turgid Twilight Samurai. And what happens when you make bad decisions in feudal Japan? Swordfight! A beautifully wrought battle between blind Shinnojo and ethically blind Shimada provides the needed tension release and the proper moral for the code.