Samurai Rebellion

Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title: Joiuchi
Date: January 01, 1967 to December 31, 1967
Dates Note: 1967
Country of Origin: Japan
Place of Origin: Japan
Languages: Japanese
Color: B&W
Silent: No
Based On: a story by Yasuhiko Takiguchi
Additional Info:


Curator Notes

Film Series/Exhibition Title: 
Samurai Rebellion: Toshiro Mifune, Screen Icon
Description: 

“Rebellion” is the fitting original title of this relentless social portrait of those who demand subservience, and those who have had enough. A magisterial Toshiro Mifune slow-burns his way through the role of dutiful samurai Sasahara—henpecked by his wife and dominated by his lord—whose attempts to be a “good servant” are about to end. “You retreat, and retreat,” says his friend Asano (Tatsuya Nakadai), “until finally you attack.” Rare for the genre, the film’s plot is set in motion by a woman, one whose willful stand against injustice inspires the men to act. All fine geometric lines, confined castle spaces, and neatly sculpted patterns of order, Samurai Rebellion finally rebels and, like Sasahara, attacks, exploding in rage against the becalmed, emotionless regime that has come before. Effective or not, it is the act of rebellion, Kobayashi implies, that matters. Toru Takemitsu provides the film’s modernist score, a perfect match to Kazuo Yamada’s haunting widescreen imagery.

Authors/Roles: 
Jason Sanders


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