Released in 1969, and today known mostly by only those with a special interest in samurai flicks, Goyokin is one of the standouts of the genre. It has several well-coreographed fight scenes, and stunning imagery from the technicolor era, but the acting and plot (which bears several shades of resemblance to "Ninja Scroll" for those who are anime fans) haven't been neglected either. It's just dramatic enough to make us care but still a manly enough story to rouse us when the main character, Magobei, decides to confront the demons of his past, even if it means opposing the clan leader he once called a friend and all the man's soldiers as well.
Please note: Entries about media reviewed in this blog are written from the framepoint that the reader has already seen the work in question and desires further commentary or explanation. Plot twists and endings will sometimes be examined.
The movie opens with an explanation of a how certain capital bound ships loaded with gold would regularly make their across a perilous stretch of ocean to their destination. Next we watch as a young woman named Oriha (Ruriko Asaoka) returns to the small fishing village she came from only to find it deserted and dilapidated. The scene proceeds for quite some time without any music or even dialogue and is a bit eerie in feel. Everyone in the village has mysteriously disappeared, "kamikakushita" as the Japanese put it, which Miyazaki translated as "Spirited Away" (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi, literally Sen and Chihiro's spiriting away), but is translated in this movie instead as "taken by the gods". Darker words for a darker story.
We then cut to a scene of feudal era Edo three years later. Our main character, Magobei (Tatsuya Nakadai), is introduced as the equivilant of a carnival samurai. Scraping by a living by showing off his swordsmanship to passersby at a festival. We will learn shortly that he's entered a self imposed exile, that something bad happened in his past which has brought him to this point. He is broken and appears to have had the fight taken out of him. He even appears ready to sell his own sword. "What honor is there to being a samurai?" he quanders when asked if it means he intends to quit his profession. Magobei does, in the end however, change his mind and keeps his sword, and just in time it would seem too; he soon finds himself surrounded by armed men come to kill him. We see quickly how skilled a swordsman Magobei is watching him handle the would be assassins with little trouble. He offs four or five men in seconds and then exhales like a man who's gone without breathing for three years. He is given much pause, however, when he learns that these men are from his former clan and the reason they've come to kill him.
A flashback shows us what pushed Magobei to quit his clan in the first place; the members of the tiny fishing village who were "taken by the gods" three years earlier were really killed upon the order of Magobei's clan leader, Rokugo (Tetsuru Tanba) who did so in order to steal the gold of one of the official ships, which passed through waters nearby, and conceal the evidence. Magobei left the clan voluntarily to avoid fighting with Rokugo, who not only is his leader but also the brother of his wife. It is clear he disapproves of Rokugo's decision. Though he makes Rokugo promise never to do so again, Magobei learns from his former clan mates come to kill him, that the man intends to do just that. And so our lone samurai vows to return home to confront the man he once respected despite the large number of warriors at his command and his relationship as a brother-in-law.
At this point we are also introduced to the other characters in the story. It is revealed that Rokugo's second in command, Kunai (Isao Natsuyagi), was the one who ordered Magobei killed, and that he did so without Rokugo's knowledge or consent. Kunai is a slippery, sinister man who unlike Rokugo doesn't have reasons to want Magobei spared, and feels that killing him is the safer course of action. We meet Shino (Yoko Tsukasa) as well, the sister to Rakugo and wife to Magobei, who gives the two of them pause to fight with one another. She is sent, early in the film, to go see Magobei in (we shall learn later) an attempt to dissuade him by different means. The young woman from the beginning of the film reappearsb as well. Though being something of a tragic character, having lost all her family and friends, she's actually very feisty in behavior; when we see her again she is working at a gambling house and attempts to cheat a group of yakuza at dice with an accomplice, Rokuzo (Ben Hiura) a young man she appears to have met over the years. Their attempt fails and they end up running away only to be surrounded. Perhaps in an attempt to try and scare the men away she calls herself, "Oriha, Taken by the Gods" (although forgotten by the gods might actually have been more appropriate given she was left behind). Magobei, who by chance happens to be passing by (in one of those coincidences that only seems to happen in the movies), overhears her part of her story and saves them from the angry gamblers. Tearfully, she later tells Magobei that she was away from the village working to save money for a wedding kimono, which Magobei knows was later used in a decoy wedding procession to get the villagers away to a deserted place to be slaughtered. It turns out, however, that Oriha is attempting to get more information out of Magobei for Samon (Kinnosuke Nakamura) the last of the film's major characters, a shadowy government spy who's good with a sword, but working alone.
Things proceed from there as Magobei makes his way to a confrontation with his old clan. There's fight in the rain in a run-down, abandoned mountain town where Magobei gets forced into a house his opponents set to fire, though in the end he's able to escape thanks to Samon. Then comes perhaps the most pivotal scene in the film as Magobei meets with his wife, who begs him to leave it behind and come away with her. She clearly is worried that he'll die, and tells him she has some money saved up and that they can make the beginnings of a new life with it. Magobei sees right through the situation, however: "Rokugo gave you that money, didn't he? This is his attempt to bribe me to close my eyes once more." The scene is important because it shows our main character's resolve. It reveals things about his psyche that he doesn't share with any of the other characters. He feels he compromised his honor once before by closing his eyes, and refuses to do so again.
As I mentioned once before, the plot to this film resembles that of the anime "Ninja Scroll", with its plot to steal gold from a ship passing by. Magobei is able to figure out that Rokugo plans to sink the government ship by placing warning fires in incorrect positions to run the ship aground, afterwards using the "Taken by the gods" routine once more. Together with his companions, Samon, Oriha, and Rokuzo, Magobei is able to thwart Rokugo's plan, saving the villagers, allowing the ship to pass safely by re-lighting the correct fires, and demolishing Rokugo's soldiers in process.
The final showdown is a stunningly shot duel in the snow between Magobei and Rokugo. Watching it we feel the emotion between these two men. The mutual respect that once was, but has since turned into contempt. We realize that these two men have absolutely destroyed one another. Rokugo by shattering Magobei's honor, Magobei by ruining Rokugo's plans.
* * *
Goyokin is not a great film, but it is a memorable one, and it's easy to see why it's considered a classic within its genre. Many of its elements may appear to be simply adequate, but the creators made a lot of intelligent choices which add up to something more than just another well done samurai flick.
The plot is good, functional as a vehicle for some great fight scenes, but not without an emotional center either. We never doubt that the main characters are motivated by realistic desires, whether they be ambition, revenge, or redemption. The characters are good as well: Magobei, Rokugo, and Shino provide the serious elements, Samon is sly and cunning, but humorous also, and together with Oriha and Rokuzo (the two of whom remind me a little of Hyakurin and her bumbling sidekick from the "Blade of the Immortal" manga) help round out the comedy relief. Nor are the characters one sided either. Rokugo is more than a one dimensional villain, being that he despises the greed of the shogunate he's subjected to, and actually wants to improve conditions for his clan, even though his means, it's hard not to argue, seem selfish and cruel. He honestly believes he's acting with the best interests of the clan in mind. His attempts not to hurt Magobei too, show a sort of respect for the man even when they find themselves opponents.
The acting is uniformly good as well with the main character Tatsuya Nakadai as Magobei being the real standout. I remember reading or hearing somewhere once about the Indian actors and that what made them so amazing was the way they "acted with their eyes". While I'm not much a judge on Indian cinema, I do have to say I thought that Nakadai had something of a similar quality in this film. His eyes are always intent, focused, and reflect the unrelenting nature of the character. He is completely and totally driven. "What is he looking at?" I find myself thinking. There's pain and a sadness there too, as well as a regret which we know is for things unchangeable. And finally perhaps a trauma that comes from seeing things that would drive any ordinary man off the deep end.
Finally there are a lot of little details that really help propel the film beyond the usual fare common to films of this type. Beautiful cinematography: bright red blood on snow, a storm of crows in the sky getting ready to feast after a massacre, the men in masks hammering away at drums in the final scene. I liked the look that passes between Orhia and Magobei before he continues onward at the end, a look of approval or forgiveness perhaps, from this girl who had everything taken from her once, and only now regains some measure of justice. The final shot was great too. Many westerns end with the hero riding into the sunset on the plains. Goyokin instead ends with Magobei walking into the sunrise upon the snowfields in a scene of ethreal beauty, followed behind by Shino.
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