Ok, this movie was filled with a bunch of sword weilding Japanese people. I like that in a movie. Basically the plot revolves around a young androynous man named Sozaburo Kano catches the attention of the other guys with his swordsmanship and his his beauty.
I must have missed something because there were a few things I didn’t get. Now I understood that there were multiple men who were interested in Kano and that he had many jealous suitors. What I don’t understand is why Kano allowed certain men to court him. Especially since he didn’t always appear to care for them. I also didn’t get who was the one who actually murdered one of his lovers. Oh well, if I’m not the only person in the world to have seen this movie please explain it to me.
This doesn’t answer your question, but the film’s original title was Gohatto, and was directed by Nagisa Oshima, who also did In the Realm of the Senses. Not one of your more conventional directors.
And I agree with watsonwill. I think it was set before 1860. I could be wrong, though.
It was set in 1865 when the end of shogunate rule and the end of samurai dominance over Japan was on the horizon. There are several references throughout the movie on why this had to be set in the 1800’s and not earlier.
It’s been a while since I saw this film, but I have the impression that Kano was using his suitors to advance his career, he was using his lovers just as much as they were using him. BTW, “Kano” is quite similar to the word “kanou” which means “possible” so there’s a little pun on how “easy” Kano is.
Yes, Oshima is a strange bird. I recently had the misfortune to see one of his early movies, “Nihon no yoru to kiri.” It was like being trapped in a theater with arguing socialists for 3.5 hours. The plot looped around the main incident, retelling it from several points of view, like Rashomon. Several times, I thought (in fact, was praying) that the movie was over but it just started up again with another plot loop. I swear Oshima deliberately wanted to torture the audience.