Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Yamada Yōji, and the kinder, gentler samurai: The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade , and Love and Honor

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1386/jjkc.1.2.157/1

1756-4913

Charles Shirō Inouye,

Asian Culture and Media Studies

Since the death of Atsumi Kiyoshi, main actor in the long-running It's Tough to be a Man series/Otoko wa tsurai yo (1969–1995), Yamada Yōji has turned his attention to the creation of jidaigeki (or period films). The trilogy Twilight Samurai/Tasogare Seibei (2002), The Hidden Blade/Kakushi ken oni no tsume (2004) and Love and Honor/Bushi no ichibun (2006) has been well received. In them, Yamada presents a novel view of the samurai, showing them as family men struggling with limited stipends and unrewarding jobs. Like their forbears, they too are men of violence who continue to be torn between obligation (giri) and personal desire (ninjō). But in these films giri and ninjō are reversed. Where social obligation was once the grounding virtue against which ninjō appeared as a weakness or vice, now ninjō is laudable, and social obligation is the cause of unhappiness.