In 1159, during an attempted coup, one of the court's ladies in waiting disguises herself as the lord's wife, and a loyal samurai conveys her from the city. This diversion allows the royal family to escape. After the coup fails, the samurai asks his lord to let him marry the woman as his reward.
This film is notable for its being in color, one of the first movies in Japan to be this way. It also happens to be a pretty decent samurai story. Thanks to some fine folks, Criterion was able to release a cleaned up version in 2011. One wonders if they could go back and improve it even more in 2016 with those fancy 4K scans.
Regardless, for fans of the samurai film, it is important to remember two things: not all samurai films are Kurosawa, and not all samurai are completely honorable.
This film is notable for its being in color, one of the first movies in Japan to be this way. It also happens to be a pretty decent samurai story. Thanks to some fine folks, Criterion was able to release a cleaned up version in 2011. One wonders if they could go back and improve it even more in 2016 with those fancy 4K scans.
Regardless, for fans of the samurai film, it is important to remember two things: not all samurai films are Kurosawa, and not all samurai are completely honorable.