Love and Honour
(Yoji Yamada)
Takuya Kimura, Takashi Sasano, Rei Dan.
Running time: 121 minutes.
(IFI Club)
Love and Honour marks the final instalment of beloved Japanese director Yoji Yamada’s samurai trilogy.
This is a fine film: a touching love story borne of treachery and bound up within the samurai honour code – imagine touches of Zatôichi and Indecent Proposal filmed by the great Ozu, with a sprinkling of good humour. It’s the story of Shinnojo (Takuya Kimura), a samurai whose job is to taste the food of the clan’s lord. When he goes blind after food poisoning he gets depressed. His beautiful, loyal wife (Rei Dan), afraid they won’t be able to survive, goes to a ruling samurai officer for help with unsavoury results.
Love and Honour is shot approaching classical Japanese stillness. Yet it’s full of vibrant, lively characters. Takuya Kimura transforms from a jackass into a depressive blind man, to a warrior ridden with vengeance but blessed with humility. Truly, there is nothing more exciting than watching a blind man wield a sword in a samurai duel.
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