Samurai II - Duel at Ichijoji temple - Criterion Collection

Starring:ToshirÃ´ Mifune, Koji Tsuruta, Mariko Okada, Kaoru Yachigusa, Michiyo Kogure, Mitsuko Mito, Akihiko Hirata, Daisuke KatÃ´, Kuroemon Onoe, Sachio Sakai, Yu Fujiki, Machiko Kitagawa, Eiko Miyoshi, EijirÃ´ Tono, Kenjin Iida, Akira Tani, Ko Mihashi, Yoshifumi Tajima, Kokuten Kodo, Keiko Kondo
Director: Hiroshi Inagaki
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

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Picking up where Samurai I left off, Toshirô Mifune's samurai in training Musashi Miyamoto is a wandering swordsman who hones his skills in a succession of duels. When he defeats a succession of students from a local school of martial arts, he becomes marked for death by the school elders and is attacked in a series of cowardly ambushes. Romantic threads from the first film become further complicated when the virginal Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa) and the sad courtesan Akemi (Mariko Okada) meet and discover their rivalry and Musashi earns himself an archenemy, an ambitious young swordsman named Sasaki Kojiro (Koji Tsuruta) who vows to defeat Musashi to make his name as the finest fencer in all of Japan. Inagaki ably manages the rather complicated plot with unexpected ease (subtitles are employed to help English viewers make a few narrative jumps) while he charts Musashi's education in compassion and humility and his internal struggle with his conflicted love for Otsu. The direction is still as distant and unostentatious as in the first film, while the color and settings become richer and more pronounced: studio-bound locations take on the quality and delicacy of paintings. The dramatic centerpiece of the trilogy, an epic pre-dawn battle where 40 swordsmen ambush Musashi, uses darkness and landscape to great dramatic effect as figures seep in and out of the picture. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Hiroshi Inagaki's acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone with the Wind. This sweeping saga of the legendary seventeenth-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (powerfully portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) plays out against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. The Trilogy (whose first part won an Academy Award®) follows Musashi's odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior. In the second and most violent installment, Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Musashi beats a samurai armed with a chain-and-sickle and is later set upon by eighty samurai disciples-orchestrated by the sinister Kojiro-while the two women who love him watch helplessly.

Customer Reviews:

Part Two Of The Epic Toshiro Mifune Samurai Trilogy!.......2006-12-19

This second installment of the epic samurai trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune, has much more action than in the previous episode. And while one must view all of the episodes in order to get a sense of the film, and how director Hiroshi Inagaki is trying to develop the characters in the film, especially Miyamoto Musashi (Toshiro Mifune) this is still a very good film on its own merits. But the first and second films are only planting the seeds of this character development, which will fully emerge and develop in the final [and best in my opinion] episode of this great samurai trilogy. This second installment, "Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple," begins where the first episode left off.

As the headstrong samurai Miyamoto Musashi (Toshiro Mifune) attempts to become a great samurai, we see him battle many opponents, and vanquish them in pursuit of becoming a famous samurai. Moreover, by his challenging others in duels, he is also becoming more skilled. As this second episode clearly shows, the brutish form of combat that Musashi is employing in order to become a better samurai [such as challenging other skilled samurai] leads a Buddhist monk to admonish Musashi becaues he has no compassion, according to this monk. Hearing those lines reminded me of the film "Sword of Doom," in which the antagonist, Tatsuya Nakadai's sword was an extension of his personality. Although, the two characters are a world apart in terms of their personalities, they both use their swords as an extension of who they are, or want to become.

For Miyamoto Musashi, his entire goal of becoming a great samurai is obscured by the fact that he lacks compassion for those he has slain in his duels. And although Miyamoto Musashi is shocked to hear these words, he continues to Kyoto, where he wants to challenge Yoshioka Seijuro. Seijuro is the head sensei of a swordmanship school; and killing him in a duel will go a long way to establishing Musashi's credentials as a samurai with a great reputation. Musashi also runs into Otsu (Kaoru Yachigusa), or should I write, Otsu runs into Musashi, who tells Otsu that he loves his sword more. However, she still remains loyal to Musashi. This is a decent film, however, it is not as good as the first, and of course the final episode is the key film in the trilogy, and by far the best. But this is still a very good episode. But it is the arrival of Kojiro Sasaki (Koji Tsutura) that is of great importance in this episode, which will reveal itself in the final episode. Recommended. Watch them all! More importantly, you will be pleasantly surprised with the final episode.

The way of the samurai.......2006-02-07

DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE is Hiroshi Inagaki's second installment in his samurai trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune. In the first movie, `Miyamoto Musashi,' Mifune played a headstrong young who fled his quiet village to find adventure and fame as a warrior. DUEL AT ICHIJOJI TEMPLE joins Musashi in mid-career. He's a stud samurai warrior now, not too sure how he made it to that point, but he's a professional warrior whose weapon is the sword and whose code of conduct and strict and exacting.

I watched the first installment in this trilogy recently and, to be honest, didn't understand what all the fuss was about. I'm beginning to get it now. DUEL is a tighter movie than its predecessor, its plot (vanquish the enemies from the local fencing school) is more straightforward and linear, Mifune's character's struggle for self control is more understandable, and many of the characters from part one return without the burden of having to establish who they are or how they fit into the story.

Even the action sequences, particularly the sword fights, are better staged and choreographed here, although they don't receive the loving indulgence given to such sequences today. In fact, we leave Musashi during one big fight scene, jump cut to a different location that he enters after defeating his opponent. Leaving him during such times, coupled with the fact that the movie doesn't show much of any of his training, still strikes me as a little odd. If you're looking for a slam-bang cut-`em-up pass this one by. The focus is on Musashi and his battle for control, and his striving attempts to `polish his soul' and make of himself a noble samurai. Interesting, unusual, and engaging.

Bushido my foot.......2005-10-23

This film has some flaws that bother me. Let's start with the overall concept, of a samurai who travels the country seeking opponents to kill, in order to become famous as the greatest fighter in the country. Does that bother you?

First there is the obvious. This man is killing people who have done nothing to deserve it. Second there is the value system, the hero worship of toughness, the disregard for humanity, the unethical quest for fame itself. I consider it disgusting.

Another problem I have with this film is that Takezo has two women pining over him, and yet we don't see any reason at all for it. No relationships are developed in the film. It is actually pathetic. We are given no foundation for either of these relationships. Otsu and Akemi are in love with Takezo. Why? I don't know. The film didn't show us why. They just are. Well, that's not good enough. Uncommunicative Takezo really has to win their hearts for me to believe it. He is a lump. Off he goes.

Communication in this movie is often dripping with phoniness, with ritualization. People don't level with each other, don't speak from the heart. They speak and act the way they are supposed to. It is nonsense. Ritualization is no basis for honest communication. Ritualization kills communication.

The cleric is presented to us as a wise man, I suppose, but he is an empty shell. He actually reminds me of the cleric in Romeo and Juliet who made such a mess of everything. We are offered packaged wisdom that makes no sense at all. I think this priest is a moron.

The great book Musashi was not done justice in this samurai trilogy. And the more unattractive aspects of pre-Hiroshima Japan are focused on too much, making it impossible to root for the characters and their bushido nonsense. Machismo be damned. It's not worth a thing.

Builds upon the great foundation of Part I.......2005-04-10

Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple, continues the journey of Musashi Miyamoto's (played by the incredible Toshiro Mifune) quest to become an enlightened samurai. This second installment is more violent than the first and includes an amazing sequence in which Musashi dispatches 80 armed samurai. The 3 films in this trilogy cannot be judged interdependently from one another-the epic story (which clocks in at nearly 5 hrs for the entire trilogy) takes the viewer along with Musashi for what I think is one of the highpoints of 1950's Japanese film.

Samurai no douro.......2004-07-23

_Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple_ starts off exactly where _Samurai I: Miyamoto Musashi_ leaves off. Musashi, the former Takezo, wanders Japan in search of ways to improve his swordsmanship by challenging other skilled samurai to duels. At the beginning of the film, Musashi is fighting a warrior armed with a sickle and chain and, although Musashi is victorious, an old Buddhist monk says that Musashi failed as a Samurai because he lacks compassion for his enemy and that Musashi was too strong.

Musashi is dumbfounded by these words, but he continues on to Kyoto where he wants to challenge Yoshioka Seijuro to a duel. Seijuro, although the head of a school of swordsmanship, is actually more interested in receiving the attentions of Akemi,the same girl who tried to seduce Takezo in the first movie, however, when he learns that Musashi wants to fight him, he actually wants to do battle, but his underlings, knowing that there is no way for Seijuro to win in a fight against Musashi, try to keep him from fighting the travelling warrior.

Musashi, although his mind is completely on the future battle, is taken back when he runs into his old love Otsu, who has been searching for him for over a year. Although Musashi states that he loves his sword more that Otsu, she is determined to remain by his side. A battle of love and a battle of steel both wage war inside of Musashi.

This is a good movie, although I don't think that it as good as the first one, which has some pretty cool fight scenes, especially the part when Musashi takes on eighty members of the Yoshioka school. However, the key part is the appearanve of Sasaki Kojiro, Musashi strongest enemy.

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