To give you some background, I was aware of this movie from the moment it was in production, as one of my colleagues worked on the film as an extra. At the time, we joked that a staff outing should take place to see the film on it's release date, which was originally scheduled for Christmas 2012. As you can see, that didn't quite happen, and so my colleagues and I were left waiting another year before we could finally see the finished film.
The story is that of Kai (Reeves), a half Japanese, half British orphan, who is discovered by samurai in the woods, having run away from the demons who raised him. Initially, the leader of the samurai, Oishi, wants to kill the boy Kai, but their Lord Asano steps in to spare his life, seeing something special in the youngster. Years later, Kai is a recluse, loyal to the samurai but never accepted by them, and in love with Lord Asano's daughter Mika. When the samurai receive a visit from Lord Kira, with shapeshifting witch Mizuki (Kikuchi) in tow, a deceit will befall the house of Asano, for which revenge will be sought by the samurai. But they will need Kai's help in order to defeat the witch and restore honour to their people.
Well, at least I think that's what it was about? It's somewhat different from the way it's portrayed in the trailer anyway. Which is a shame because it's not a terrible movie, but if you go into it expecting a film with lots of samurai action, and then you get a love story, with a side of samurai fighting, you'd be disappointed, which I think is why 47 Ronin has had such a poor response.
*Spoiler Alert* The other thing I found kind of hard to swallow was that you spend the whole movie rooting for the 47 Ronin of the title, hoping they will get their revenge for the wrongful enforced suicide of their leader, and in the end, they suffer the same fate. So what exactly was the point? *End Spoiler Alert*
In summary, the samurai movie looks very nice, is essentially a love story with a side of action but the end is disappointing. 6.5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 7th January 2014
UK Release Date - 26th December 2013
Cast Overview:
Kai ~ Keanu Reeves
Oishi ~ Hiroyuki Sanada
Mika ~ Ko Shibasaki
Lord Kira ~ Tadanobu Asano
Lord Asano ~ Min Tanaka
Chikara ~ Jin Akanishi
Yasuno ~ Masayoshi Haneda
Mizuki ~ Rinko Kikuchi
Director ~ Carl Rinsch
Writer(s) ~ Chris Morgan (Screenplay and Screen Story), Hossein Amini (Screenplay) and Walter Hamada (Screen Story)
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