Samurai Fury
Is there anything in terms of visuals that we haven’t really seen in a samurai film before? Not really- as with so many over the decades Irie Yu owes considerable debt to the work of Akira Kurosawa. But there are structural choices that Yu makes that distinguishes this in a lot of fun, energetic ways that I appreciated.
The film begins with voiceover and title cards, setting the time and place as 15th Century Japan. The narrator feels like they are speaking to us from the present day, giving “Samurai Fury” the sense of a myth being told to us. It’s almost like the device of having Robert the Bruce being the narrator in “Braveheart”- rather than just tell the story outright, we are getting the sense that this is a larger than life tale that will live on, long after these characters have died. The place, Kyoto in the middle of the 15th Century, is not long before the Onin War breaks out. Feudalism and bloodshed reign. On opposing sides are Hyoe (Yô Ôizumi), who leads a band of outlaws, and is legendary with a blade, and Doken (Shini’ichi Tsutsumi), who leads an army for the local, corrupt Shogunate in the area. Hyoe and Doken were once friends, but are now rivals, and Hyoe has managed to find an apprentice in Saizo (Kento Nagao), whom he received as partial payment from Doken. As larger war builds, however, Saizo prepares, and he could find himself in a leadership role as the situation unfolds further.
For much of this film’s 135 minutes, it isn’t that dissimilar from other modern samurai epics I’ve seen- loyal to the ideas of Kurosawa and others, but not really able to distinguish itself. But Yu has some visual flourishes, especially during Saizo’s training- and the last 40 minutes- that are simply thrilling to watch when the action takes hold. But the sneaky MVP of this film is the score by Yoshihiro Ike. There are times where it very much plays to traditional Japanese epic ideas, but this also has the feel of an American western score, which is fitting because of how many westerns Kurosawa’s films inspired. That dichotomy in genres also brought to mind “Kill Bill,” another work in which this has a unique kinship. If ratings were given solely for moments, “Samurai Fury” would be among my very favorite films of the year. It’s not quite that level, but Yu’s imagination and choices as a storyteller definitely elevated this higher than it should have been. There are times when this might overstay its welcome, but when it delivers, it’s a triumph.
