47 Ronin

Dir: Carl Rinsch

2013

***

The story of the 47 Ronin has been told many times over, on radio, TV and in film. Carl Rinsch's 2013 film is the ninth time the story has come to the big screen but while the many TV series made on the subject have been successful, Rinsch's joins the list of movie adaptation flops. Only Hiroshi Inagaki's 1962 film Chūshingura is regarded highly and with great performances from Makoto Sato, Akira Takarada and the great Toshiro Mifune, it remains pretty hard to beat. That said, Carl Rinsch's adaptation has a lot going for it. Keanu Reeves is okay in his role, I like him and will never complain about his appearance in a film but his character is woefully unnecessary and was never part of the original story. It just seemed like a cheap way of gaining a lazy worldwide audience by having a westerner in the lead role, speaking English so everyone else had to. It is pretty much what you'd expect from the guy who wrote The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift to do with the ancient tale, although it is better than you might expect. I think the biggest issue I have with it is its name. This is nothing like the original 47 Ronin story, a story not really that familiar with western audiences anyway, so why use the title at all? Call it something else and you can look at it differently but as an adaptation it is horrible. I was entertained throughout and I enjoyed the action sequences and the beautiful visuals. For a directional debut Carl Rinsch should be congratulated. The film bombed and is regarded as a complete failure, the studio being blamed due to using 'untested' directors but in truth, Rinsch is one of the few things good about the film. While the story isn't great and the characters aren't well written, the performances are all very strong and the imagery is vivid. I would argue that it is pretty much everything you want from a martial arts action fantasy and if it was made in the 1980s it would be a classic by now. I think the westernization of the story is where the real fault lies and I don't think anyone was ever going to except it. It is far from being a masterpiece but I think it achieved more than what was expected of it.