Samurai Banners

Samurai Banners is one of those sweeping epics of a bygone era of Japanese cinema. It's grandiose in scale, costume, and character. Samurai Banners or rather Furin Kazan is based on the novel by Inoue Yusushi detailing the rise to power of a poor samurai known as Yamamoto Kansuke. Kansuke is one those beloved characters in Japan because he rose from nearly nothing to success. It is only fitting that he be played by one Japanese cinema's greatest actors, Mifune Toshiro.Mifune's Kansuke can be ruthless and scheming as shown by how he gets his introduction to the Takeda clan and how he deals with Lord Suwa but he is also principled and sees the potential of Takeda Shingen even when Shingen cannot see it himself. He is not cruel for cruelty's sake but for grim necessity. What softens his demeanor somewhat is the presence of Lord Suwa's daughter, the Lady Yu.The character of Lady Yu really helps round out the film as her presence even when not on screen casts its influence on the events and motives of Kansuke and Shingen. She lost her father and her clan to Kansuke's schemes and she has good reason to hate both him and his lord Takeda.Although Kansuke loves her, his station does not permit him to pursue such love especially when his lord decides to make her one of his concubines. Thus is formed the love triangle amongst these characters but one can easily sense that Kansuke truly loves Lady Yu for her character and not just her beauty. He resolves his conflict between love and duty into fierce loyalty towards Lady Yu and when she gives birth, her son is whom Kansuke wants to see become a great leader.Ironically the great Takeda Shingen of historical renown comes off as a two-dimensional secondary character next to these two. He is relatively happy and well off while the other two must continually deal with their conflicting emotions and underlying pain.Meanwhile history precedes relentlessly as while these three deal with their feelings, the Takeda clan grows and expands through battle and political strategy. The film ends with the great climatic battle of Kawanakajima in 1561. Here we see the classic confrontation of Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin as the former wards off the sword strokes of the latter with his war fan. And we see the ultimate fate of Yamamoto Kansuke.Overall, Samurai Banners is great film both for students of history and also for movie-goers who like a good story. The historical backdrop and battles don't drown the characters as can happen in these types of films. The cinematography in some of the scenes is simply beautiful. Now if you are looking for an action-packed slice-em and dice-em type samurai action flick short on plot and character then Samurai Banners is not for you.

I am a huge fan of Toshiro Mifune, which is why I decided to buy this movie. His acting is as always the best, however, there were also some aspects of this movie that I wasn't too happy about:The quality of the recording, both audio and video was below my expectation.The movie itself has a complicated story, confusing, and hard to follow.

This superb period film does not make the mistake of concentrating on either of the two warring lords Takeda and/or Kagetora but instead focus' on Takeda's most celebrated general Kansuke Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune), who was the brain behind the victories anyway. His story is much more interesting, both as one of a man driven by a wildly ambitious dream, and also one consumed with tragic love. On either level this film works wonders.Set in Japan between 1543 and 1562 (the period of Warring States) SAMURAI BANNERS is an epic film! The costumes are impeccable, the film is engrossing and I didn't even realize it was almost three hours long. The battles are nicely done, but not overindulging. (For people who come for the violent samurai films, SAMURAI BANNERS will be sure to disappoint.) Toshiro Mifune is great, even with a shaved head!The English subtitles by AnimEgo were superb, probably one of the best I've seen, they even had different colors for different characters. They also provided running explanations for some of the terms used in conversation. Very complete, very nicely done, and nary a grammatical error.I can't wait for this film to appear on DVD, the VHS transfer, although decent, cannot do the colors justice.

Dare I say, this is where television trumps films, unless the story is divided into parts, like Lord of the Rings. The story of Yamamoto Kansuke and his role as the Chamberlain to the Takeda Clan, and the odd love triangle between him, Shingen and Princess Yu over a period about twenty years, told in 166 minutes is quite the undertaking. Add to that, Takeda Shingen was a warlord during the Sengoku era, one of the most complicated periods of Japanese history to keep straight. I think the true theme of the film is the relationship between the three main characters, so the film is forced to cover the entire time period, rather than just a couple of his military campaigns. However, covering the campaigns it does, drawing into it, Kansuke's influence and his feelings for Princess Yu.No criticism of the acting. I think Toshiro Mifune's peformance in this film is one of his best, and shows a well-roundedness of the character he plays. Kinnosuke Nakamura is one of my favorite actors, so of course, I will say he gives a good performance as well. Hiroshi Inagaki does a good job of fleshing out the characters and their feelings about each other and what each believe will give meaning to his/her life.The problem, however, is in the details. Not only do we have to try and keep track of Takeda's military campaigns, which there are a lot of, and the movie still didn't cover all, including the four Battles of Kawanakajima (movie covered the one battle where Kanosuke was killed), and on the side, follow the relationship between Kanosuke, Shingen and Yu.The end result is that it's like getting little snippets of the personal and professional life of a lord during the Sengoku era, rather than a detailed study of one aspect.

The movie was great the acting was good! But the box was trashy. And the subtitles were late! But it is a good look at the Sengoku jidai and samurai.

Nothing. Order. Receive View. All is well.

I never seen the movie but as I viewed it, the movie seemed to been spliced into several scenes. Not sure if that is how movie was made.

Samurai films are not for everyone. They tend to be slow,and plot and story driven, rather than action, and thisis a classic samurai movie.This was very popular in Japan on its release in 1969, butunlike other Kurosawa's work, little unknown outside ofJapan. Maybe that has to do with a running time of twohours and 45-mins, and that makes it hard to watch.This is a historical drama with set battle scenes, but Ikind of got a little bored towards the middle of themovie, with one battle after the other, all looking thesame, although the final battle is good. The attentionto detail of costumes and sets is amazing, and that isit's real strength.I wouldn't recommend this as a first Samurai film tosee, that would have to be Yojimbo, but this is aSamurai movie worth watching

I thought I was buying a DVD . My bad! The 5 stars are for Mifune san.