Can we be honest?
This is WAY TOO LONG.
I'm a fan of japanese cinema and especially samurai films, but this 1941 flick was considered too long even by 1941 Japanese viewers.
There is no action the first two hours of this four-hour sanity test. It's just talking among courtiers with occasional nice cinematographic visuals of the grounds. Be forewarned: the ronin samurai are a dim afterthought here. This is almost exclusively about "government" bureaucrats scheming and infighting. In other words, this 4 hours is almost non-stop talking in medium shots.
This is WAY TOO LONG.
I'm a fan of japanese cinema and especially samurai films, but this 1941 flick was considered too long even by 1941 Japanese viewers.
There is no action the first two hours of this four-hour sanity test. It's just talking among courtiers with occasional nice cinematographic visuals of the grounds. Be forewarned: the ronin samurai are a dim afterthought here. This is almost exclusively about "government" bureaucrats scheming and infighting. In other words, this 4 hours is almost non-stop talking in medium shots.