Ultimateserge’s Block

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto-1954 June 7, 2010

Rating:***.5

directed By: Hiroshi Inagaki

Starring:

Few philosophers are renowned for their guidance in military tactics or their competence as men of the battlefield. Considering that such men excel in the art of brutal killing, they seem an odd category of people to recommend to the masses the right methods of life. A large part of the population have for long wisdom of such men, Niccolò Machiavelli and Sun Tzu springing readily to mind, as they are seen as playing the devil’s advocate for the cruel rulers they guide. However demented or wise these men may be, they without doubt shaped the political and social structure of their government and their influence has carried on even to our era. Among such men, the case of the protagonist of Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto is an unusual one; a ronin-a samurai without a Lord or House to serve-as the political and military philosopher. His text on military strategy, The Book of Five Rings, is still being read and scrutinized in many areas, from philosophy to business.

A famed swordsman, Musashi Miyamoto, was an unbeatable warrior whose legacy carries on as one of the most rebellious and intriguing men of his time. Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto is the first segment of a trilogy of films depicting Musashi’s life; as it is the first segment it focuses on his early exploits to become a samurai. Following the loss of his side at the Battle of Sekigahara, he takes refugee with his fellow friend, Honiden Matahachi, at the house of a widow and her daughter. The daughter and widow fall in love with Musashi due to his swordsmanship that kills, injures, and scares of a large portion of the ronin that demands favors such as money, food, jewelry-especially Gold-to leave them unharmed. He rejects both women while Matahachi attaches himself to the women, even though he has promised to return to his faithful fiancé. Angered by this event, Musashi returns to his village to inform Matahachi’s mother and fiancé of his whereabouts.

As in many other classic Samurai films,  Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto contains great acting, by the likes of no other than Toshiro Mifune, an able director, and carefully chosen settings. Even with all the good performances and genuinely fine screenplay, based on a contemporary Japanese novel of Musashi’s life, the film is ultimately forgettable. Undeniably, the film simply aims at describing Musashi’s earliest years, but in turn creates a work that could only interest fans of Musashi Myamoto rather than the average filmgoer. What really drains the film is the lack of comprehension of Musashi’s true talent and vigor; on the surface he seems indistinguishable from countless samurai of other samurai flicks. Granted that he may be a shallow samurai, no insight or philosophy is assigned to character. It is quite unexplained why he hates the village and its inhabitants as much as he does. Without some insight about the true significance of Musashi, the audience of the film will be more confused at the significance of this character that seems to lack any significant characteristic worth caring for.

Strangely, the film succeeds in making Musashi look like a complete loon and fool, and not a believable one. In the hunt that ensues, he succeeds in overpowering nearly everyone, but surrenders himself to the Priest with no opposition; it is not the surrender that is strange, but the method of surrender which is so spiritless and uncharacteristic of the samurai character that Musashi so eagerly demands to achieve. If that wasn’t enough, Musashi is deceived a second time by the Priest who caused him so much suffering and humiliation. Unfortunately, the story line may be believable and acceptable in the novel that the film is based on, but many of the film’s developments seem to embarrassingly display the filmmaker’s inability of giving the work an acceptable ending.

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto is insignificant not because Musashi’s himself is not interesting for the contemporary viewer, far from it, but because he is utterly identical to every other samurai you have seen. As it is shown, he is a great swordsman, but, then again, are not all samurai? As much as Toshiro Mifune attempts to show us the rebellious, and eventual moral character, of Musashi we are at a loss, because the script is so thinly developed that even the noblest efforts of the entire cast combined can not make the film the great picture that it truly deserves to be. Surprisingly, Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto was presented with Academy  Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 28th (1955) Oscars; however, odd a selection this may be, it is not nearly as strange why the following two segment of the trilogy were devoid of such honors.