Movies
Quite a bit better than the first two films. It's been a while since I watched those, so it's not easy to compare them directly, but I was a lot more invested in this third part. The cinematography was way more impressive, the drama worked a lot better and there seemed to be a stronger focus on the atmosphere. The cinematography is really the highlight here, with some very impressive vistas and lovely black-and-white contrasts. The drama is decent but combined with the title of the film things do get a bit pompous toward the ending. At least, it was a lot easier to get through, even though the film is more than three hours long. Best of the bunch.Read all
A classic samurai drama by Kobayashi. He's a very reputable director, but so far his films haven't appealed to me, and Samurai Rebellion is no exception. It's a slow and dialogue-heavy drama about a woman who gets transferred between her lord and a samurai family, with just a little action at the end. The performances are unremarkable, the drama is dry, and the action scenes are static and uneventful. The cinematography is proper but very rigid, which doesn't really help either. It's certainly not the worst film of its kind, but I prefer something more energetic or aesthetically pleasing.Read all
A slight step up from the first installment. Mostly because the balance between pure drama and war cinema is just a little different here, with a bit more attention going to the battlefield. It made the film just that little easier to get through, though in the end the popularity of this film series still escapes me. The black and white cinematography doesn't really pop, the dramatic performances are well over the top and at 180 minutes, it's at least half a film too long. The second half is easier to get through though, which makes me somewhat hopeful for the third part, but I really don't see what all the fuss is about.Read all
