Drama Movies | Shura (1971)

Submitted by mandalay on Sat, 03/15/2008 - 16:27.

Movies

“

Toshio Matsumoto’s Shura
presents a problem common to many other, equally daring movies. It is,
on the one hand, one of the most unrelentingly bleak and hopeless films
I have ever seen. It is also superbly written, acted, directed and
conceived, in the same way that Kurosawa’s Ran or Takeshi Kitano’s Violent Cop
were technically outstanding executions of stories so dark and
unforgiving that most people turned away from them. But not every movie
has to be fun, and not every story worth telling has a happy ending.
Shura is the second film by Toshio Matsumoto, who achieved instant fame and something like genius with his Funeral Procession of Roses.
Here, he plunges into Japan’s feudal past (as most Japanese directors
do at least once during their careers) and comes up with a story almost
too cruel to watch. What saves the film from being more than just a
sick curio is its technical expertise, its sometimes radical
filmmaking, and outstanding (and occasionally quite courageous)
performances by the whole cast.

DVD of the Week

”

Welcome to japan movies..

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Shura
ist ein bösartiger, beklemmender, klaustrophobischer Twist auf das
Samuraigenre und einer der wohl besten, wenn auch erschütternsten Filme
über die destruktiven Kettenreaktionen der Lüge.

Mitternachtskino

”