Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijôji no kettô)
Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki
Written by Tokuhei Wakao and Hiroshi Inagaki from a play by Hideji Hôjô and a novel by Eiji Yoshikawa
1955/Japan
Tojo Company
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance. — Confucius [/box]
This is probably of most interest to lovers of kick-ass samurai sword fighting.
At the end of the last film, Musashi Miyamoto (Toshiro Mifune) had left his true love Otsu waiting on a bridge while he went off in search of the inner character to be a true samurai. The movie doesn’t waste any time. Miyamoto immediately takes on a famous older samurai armed with a kind of mace. Then we find out that Otsu has been waiting by the bridge for three years. She meets Akemi, the daughter of the evil mother from the last movie. Akemi is longing for Miyamoto as well.
Akemi’s evil mother is trying to arrange a marriage between her daughter and Seijuro, the master of a famous martial arts school. Miyamoto has already been picking off Seijuro’s students handily. When Seijuro finds out that Atami’s heart belongs to Miyamoto, he becomes the samurai’s sworn enemy. The film builds to a showdown between Seijuro and Miyamoto but not before Miyamoto must defeat an ambush by 80 of Seijuro’s disciples single handed.
This is not strong on characterization and I am not a swordplay aficionado so it’s not a great match for me. It’s OK though and samurai action fans might love it.
Trailer – the murky print is also a feature of the DVD
Funnily enough I always think of poor little Otsu when I encounter this cycle in its many incarnations. Though I’m not so sure how much real history is being told concerning her relationship with The Man.
I know this sort of movie is not exactly your cuppa tea but I came across a reference that the Japanese favour a series of 5 movies made over the period 1961 to 1965 over this trilogy.
Collectively known as Zen and the Sword. Apparently it uses the extra run time to more adequately tell the tale. Not seen it myself but it’s gone on that never ending, always growing list LOL.
A peek at IMDB showed a steady rating of 7.1/2 for each of the five movies FWIW.
I’ve seen this trilogy but I really can’t remember many defining moments in anything but hazy detail. I know I enjoyed it but time has made a judgement that, for me, it wasn’t WOW despite the presence of the Mighty Mifune.
The Seven Samurai still remains far and away my best old school samurai film.
Mifune is strangely subdued in these films except when he is wielding his sword! I don’t remember a lot of detail either just that the third film is by far my favorite. Zen and the Sword might be interesting but I’m less interested in martial arts than in characters.