Kanichiro Yoshimura is a Samurai and Family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the the low pay he receives from his small town clan, he is forced by the love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them.
Acting
Kiichi Nakai's devastating restraint — watch his eyes.
Direction
Takita frames poverty with the grandeur of tragedy.
Writing
Saito's testimony structure reframes heroism entirely.
Director
Yojiro Takita
Kiichi Nakai
Kanichiro Yoshimura
Koichi Sato
Hajime Saito
Yui Natsukawa
Shizu / Mitsu
Takehiro Murata
Chiaki Ono
Miki Nakatani
Nui
Yuji Miyake
Jiroemon Ohno
Masato Sakai
Okita Soji
Atsushi Ito
Young Chiaki Ono
Ryo Kase
Shûhei Kondô
Keisuke Horibe
Yasunoshin Shinohara
Eugene Nomura
Hijikata Toshizō
Masayoshi Haneda
Hideaki Ito
Yoshinobu Tokugawa
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film deliberately subscribes to the 'great man' biopic formula only to weaponize it against the audience — we enter expecting samurai glory and exit mourning administrative obscurity.
Kiichi Nakai spent months practicing the specific sword style of Hokushin Itto-ryu, only to have his character fail at basic drills — the performance of incompetence required genuine mastery.
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