A 16-year-old beauty dies beautiful while his father kills himself for honor he can't have.
On February 4th of the 16th year of the Genroku era, Yatō Uemon no Shichi reminisces while waiting his turn for seppuku at the Mizuno residence. When news of his lord, Asano Naganori, attacking Kira Yoshinaka in the palace reached Akō, Uemon no Shichi was sixteen. The family elder, Ōishi Kuranosuke, determined to avenge, gathered allies, but Uemon no Shichi's father, Chōsuke, being sickly and considered too young, was not included. Chōsuke committed suicide.
Acting
Nakamura's face holds an entire era's sorrow.
Direction
Itō frames waiting as its own violent act.
Cinematography
Shadow and powder, the 1950s in decaying Edo.
Director
Daisuke Itō
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of the endless Chūshingura adaptations, this one fixates on the excluded—those the legend forgot.
Katsuo Nakamura was actually around 20 playing 16, his androgynous look deliberately weaponized by Itō.
JP
