The story of the forty-seven ronin’s revenge has been told before many times, in film, TV, plays, opera, comics… basically, every format imaginable.
When Keanu Reeves was announced as starring in a new take on the story, it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t going to be a historically faithful version. Then we started hearing about “witches and giants” and I guess they’d decided to chuck all realism out the window. The results look alright, I guess, but a little too heavy on that bland, plasticky big-budget action-adventure CG look that Hollywood has been cranking out too much of lately.
The film also stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Rinko Kikuchi. It hits theaters on December 25th this year — in 3D, of course.
Yeah….but Sanada and Kikuchi are up my alley. So, might be fun in a decent way.
my first immediate thought was, i was supposed to find this film repulsive when historical accuracy went out the window, plus this Western white guy (even tho he is only half of it, the symbolism is there) being the savior all over again. but i don’t know, i somehow find myself intrigued and interested mainly because of Sanada (my favorite Japanese actor who has crossed the Pacific, sorry Watanabe-san) and well! Mako Mori! it’s just nice to see a familiar face on screen i guess. i decided to just throw common sense and whatever nostalgic sacred notions i held for the samurai out of the window in order to appreciate this. it’s like physics and Pacific Rim. instead of giant monsters and robots, we get monsters, creatures, demons and witches crossing swords with samurai. i believe this is the first time the fantasy element the Japanese culture shamelessly incorporate into their beloved history is formally introduced on the big Hollywood stage. so, why not? let’s see how this goes.
I’m looking forward to the bit where Keanu climbs into the head of the buddah statue and uses it as a giant robot.