Rebellion

A fine movie from the team that gave you Harakiri, though this is much easier on the stomach. Again the spotlight is on Japan's code of honour - the rebellion is Mifune's, tired of having his family life mucked around by his Shogun overlords (the date is 1725). Characters spend much time talking, sitting cross-legged and frozen while their passions rise to boiling-point; everything erupts, however, in the finale, in which long grass, glistening sword blades and bloody bodies elegantly fill the Tohoscope frame. Compare or contrast with the French classical drama of Corneille and Racine (and don't write on both sides of the paper).