The Return (2019) new Tatsuya Nakadai samurai film

[whitesnake]

Tatsuya Nakadai stars in a new samurai drama, The Return, which was screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival (Oct 28 - Nov 5, 2019).  The movie, shot in 8K, was directed by Shigemichi Sugita (Saigo no Chushingura).  Tatsuya Nakadai also received a lifetime achievement award at the Film Festival.  Story at https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tatsuya-nakadai-set-receive-tokyo-film-festival-lifetime-achievement-honor-1249965 

"The Return tells the story of an ailing outlaw who returns to his hometown after a 30-year journey.  In the village of his youth, he decides to save a girl in dire straits."  From https://2019.tiff-jp.net/news/en/?p=15427 

Official Japanese site of The Return - https://www.jidaigeki.com/kikyo/ 

The Return Trailer - 

 

[Shosetsu]

@whitesnake

By golly, that really surprised me because for some reason I thought that Nakadai Tatsuya had already passed away.  After all, the great Matsukata Hiroki passed away the other year.  How ironic that Matsukata's television roles in the Samurai programs were much better than his movies about Yakuza which were so awful.  Still looking for DVDs on Matsukata's Yagyu Jubei TV series.

[Takuma]

15 hours ago, Shosetsu said:

ironic that Matsukata's television roles in the Samurai programs were much better than his movies about Yakuza which were so awful.

I beg to disagree! You are the 1st person I have ever seen call them awful. I think many of them are amazing, e.g. Showa Woman Gambler (1972), Yakuza vs. G-Men: Decoy (1973), Cops vs. Thugs (1975), Okinawa Yakuza War (1976), Hokuriku Proxy War (1977) + loads of very good ones like YA-KU-ZA-Hoodlums (1966), Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison (1974), Violent Money Network (1975), Authentic True Account - Osaka Shock Tactics (1976), etc.

[BigDruDogg]

Wow I love Nakadai, I can't believe he's still acting!! He and Mifune define Japanese Cinema for me!!

Also I have to disagree as well, although his Samurai roles were superior along with Matsukata's Kin-San roles, his yakuza films were far from awful.. In particular "the wolves, hunter in the dark, and onimasa" just to name a few...

All in all I'm happy he's still acting and looking forward to checking this out, I'll cross my fingers it eventually gets a western release as well

[Shosetsu]

On 12/4/2019 at 3:51 AM, Takuma said:

I beg to disagree! You are the 1st person I have ever seen call them awful. I think many of them are amazing, e.g. Showa Woman Gambler (1972), Yakuza vs. G-Men: Decoy (1973), Cops vs. Thugs (1975), Okinawa Yakuza War (1976), Hokuriku Proxy War (1977) + loads of very good ones like YA-KU-ZA-Hoodlums (1966), Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison (1974), Violent Money Network (1975), Authentic True Account - Osaka Shock Tactics (1976), etc.

I guess I was a bit too harsh in my disdain, Takuma.  So let me make it clear that it was just my opinion, a matter of taste.  

For the most part, Yakuza films leave me cold but there was one exception to that rule.  That is, the Yakuza character played by Ryuji Shinagawa who was the traveling companion to the ronin character in Hanayama Daikichi, played by Konoe Jushiro.  The reason I enjoyed that Yakuza character was because Shinagawa played it tongue-in-cheek.  For example one scene that stands out in my mind even after 30 years was when he felt unbearably itchy, so he stripped down to his loincloth.  Then he spread out his clothing on the ground and then knelt down to check for fleas!