Movies - Samurai Fiction

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	Movies - Samurai Fiction

Samurai Fiction, also known as SF: Episode One, is not a typical samurai movie. It is 96% black-and-white, and follows a fairly standard plotline for a jidaigeki samurai movie, but the presence of Tomoyasu Hotei's rock-and-roll soundtrack separates it from the films it was inspired by, such as the works of Akira Kurosawa.

Samurai Fiction was the first full-length feature film for writer-director Nakano Hiroyuki, who had been primarily a director of music videos for MTV Japan. His experience with rock-and-roll music videos comes through in the film, in the cinematography, and certainly in the soundtrack. He envisioned it as the first in a series, entitled "SF". The films would be only vaguely related, in terms of plot or characters; Nakano wanted to explore a number of genres, with every title beginning with the letters SF. However, only one other film has thus far been made in the series, Stereo Future in 2001. Nakano's concepts for future films include the titles Short Films, Silent Female, Super Funky, and Sunday Family. Samurai Fiction was also the first acting experience for Japanese rock star Tomoyasu Hotei.

The film has some amusing inside jokes, references, and connections. For example, the stolen sword that is at the center of the plot was a personal possession of Toshiro Mifune, the star of many of Akira Kurosawa's samurai films. Samurai Fiction makes references to Pulp Fiction
and other modern movies, and many of the scenes and shots from SF are used by Quentin Tarantino in the first volume of Kill Bill
. In addition, Tomoyasu Hotei, star of SF and composer & performer of its score, composed and performed "Battle Without Honor or Humanity", arguably the most well-known and well-liked track from Kill Bill's soundtrack.

While the film is nearly entirely in black-and-white, paying homage to older samurai movies, this allows for the artistic and dramatic use of color; this is most noticeable whenever a character is killed, and the screen flashes red for a moment. Color is used to dramatic effect at the beginning and end of the film as well.

Plot

The plot centers around Inukai Heishiro, played by Fukikoshi Mitsuru, the son of a feudal lord. One of his family's most precious heirlooms, a sword given them by the Shogun, has been stolen by the samurai Kazamatsuri, played by Tomoyasu Hotei. Against his father's advice, Heishiro insists on retrieving the sword himself. His father sends two ninja after him to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

Kazamatsuri wounds Heishiro, and kills one of his companions. The young noble ends up staying with an older samurai and his daughter, Koharu, played by Tamaki Ogawa, while he heals from his wound and plans his next move. The older samurai tries to dissuade him from fighting, but Heishiro's honor won't allow him to leave Kazamatsuri alive. The older samurai, who turns out to be the master Hanbei Mizogushi, played by Morio Kazama convinces him to fight Kazamatsuri by throwing rocks at him.

In the mean time, Kazamatsuri settles for a few days at a gambling house owned by the Lady Okatsu, played by Mari Atsuki, who falls in love with him. Then one night one of the ninja sent to protect Heishiro bribes her to poison his sake for one thousand gold. She does, but Kazamatsuri tastes the poison and kills Okatsu and the rest of the people in the gambling house. He then kidnaps Koharu in an attempt to get the master Mizoguchi to fight him.

Mizoguchi reveals to Heishiro that he killed Koharu's father, and has since never drawn his sword on another man, despite his immense skill. They then go to find Kazamatsuri and rescue Koharu. While Mizoguchi stalls Kazamatsuri, Heishiro takes Koharu aside and says he will marry her if Mizoguchi wins. Kazamatsuri fights Mizoguchi, who only draws his sword after his opponent destroys his wooden sword. He then disarms Kazamatsuri near a cliff. Kazamatsuri, admitting defeat, commits suicide by jumping off the cliff. Heishiro and the others go to the bottom, where there is no sign of Kazamatsuri's body, but Koharu spots the stolen sword at the bottom of the river, where Heishiro retrieves it.

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