Fireworks

A film by Mansaku Itami

Chuji for sale

Martial Arts Encyclopedia

In the midst of the depression, two ronin rack their brains to come up with a dishonest scheme. Taking a man from the countryside, they fashion him into Ise Isenokami, the finest swordsman under the sun. Pretending to be his followers, they visit various sword fighting dojo. Out of fear upon hearing the name Isenokami, they pay him off and do not let him enter their training halls. The impostor eventually comes face to face with the real Isenokami after rescuing his daughter, Oyae, who is caught up in a minor incident.

A samurai is ordered by his lord to go to Edo and investigate the truth behind the rumor of a rebellion against him.

Japanese adaptation of LES MISERABLES. The last film of director Itami took inspiration from Les Miserables. Transpiring during the Southwestern War of 1877 in Japan, which was the last civil war in the country, a criminal escapes prison only to be found by a monk. The criminal decides to turn a new leaf based on their conversation and goes on to become a town's mayor. He hears news of a mistaken arrest and identity. The revelation of truth is the start of a series of miseries.

At the invitation of the Japanese Ministry of Education, the former “mountain filmer” Fanck directed this “cultural feature film” with Japanese actors in Japan, making this the first, German-Japanese co-production. The young Japanese man Teruo gets caught up in a conflict between tradition and modernism, when he returns to Japan from Germany after having spent a number of years there studying. Now, he is supposed to marry Mitsuko, the daughter of his adoptive father, to whom Teruo has long been promised. But Teruo, who has gotten to know the freedoms of the western world, would rather marry the woman he loves and behaves brusquely to Mitsuko.

Directed by Mansaku Itami.