Shakespeare’s King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
Tag: seppuku
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The Abe Clan
A Choice between Loyalty or Duty of the Samurai! Can the heartlessness of society crush the honor of an individual? In the spring of the 18th year of Kanei, Hosokawa Tadatoshi, feudal lord of the Higo area, died. Although Tadatoshi forbade his vassals to follow him in death before he died, they still committed seppuku one after the other. The new feudal lord, Mitsunao, Tadatoshi’s son, also gave the order forbidding seppuku. Abe Yaichiemon obeyed his former lord’s last wish but is now being called a coward by his comrades and finally decided to follow Tadatoshi in death in order to save his family’s honor. Mitsunao, upset by Yaichiemon actions, punished the Abe family unfairly. Objected to this, the Abe family shut themselves up in their manor as the lords troops moved in. This is the true story of what happened within the Hosokawa clan in early Edo era.
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Hiroshima
The documentary recounts the world’s first nuclear attack and examines the alarming repercussions. Covering a three-week period from the Trinity test to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the program chronicles America’s political gamble and the planning for the momentous event. Archival film, dramatizations, and special effects feature what occurred aboard the Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped the bomb) and inside the exploding bomb.
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13 Assassins
A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan’s feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.
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Scabbard Samurai
Kanjuro Nomi is an aging samurai who only has a scabbard. Deserting his lord to wander the land with his daughter Tae, Kanjuro is captured and sentenced to an unusual punishment: he has 30 days to bring a smile to the sad prince who has lost his mother — or else he must die.
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Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
A tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.
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The 47 Rōnin in Debt
Feudal lord Takuminokami Asano has been led to kill himself due to a scheme by Kozukenosuke Kira. Having no time to mourn his death, samurai Kuranosuke Oishi decides to take revenge on Kira, planning an attack with the help of accountant Chosuke Yato… but they don’t have enough in their budget.
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The 47 Ronin
In 1701, Lord Takuminokami Asano has a feud with Lord Kira and he tries to kill Kira in the corridors of the Shogun’s palace. The Shogun sentences Lord Asano to commit suppuku and deprives the palace and lands from his clan, but does not punish Lord Kira. Lord Asano’s vassals leave the land and his samurais become ronin and want to seek revenge against the dishonor of their Lord. But their leader Kuranosuke Oishi asks the Shogun to restore the Asano clan with his brother Daigaku Asano. One year later, the Shogun refuses his request and Oishi and forty-six ronin revenge their Lord.