Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

tomgillespie2002 In Masaki Kobayashi's Samurai Rebellion, Toshiro plays a skilled swordsman named Isaburo, a silent type who places honour and family above everything else. In many ways, Isaburo is like the humble American cowboy of old, and the Japanese samurai movies themselves share many of the same qualities of the Western - an almost mythical historical setting where good battles bad, albeit often on a larger scale. Yet the samurai movies seem infinitely more complex beneath the surface, satirising a time where feudal lords reigned over vast areas of land and the common-folk and nobles were kept in line by social rigidity.Isaburo has lived most of his life by this code. Having suffered in silence following years being henpecked by his wife who he married on the order of his daimyo, he has nonetheless proved himself to be the greatest swordsman in the land, winning the respect of his superiors in the process. It is because of this reputation that his son Yogoro (Go Kato) is chosen as the husband for their lords ex- concubine Lady Ichi (Yoko Tsukasa), who had previously given birth to a potential heir but now banished from her lords castle after disgracing herself. Isaburo reluctantly accepts the proposal and the marriage surprisingly turns out to be a loving one. But when his heir dies unexpectedly and Ichi's child moves next in line, the lord demands that Ichi be returned to the castle. Yogoro refuses and, moved by their true love, Isaburo takes a stand next to his son.Even when they aren't inspired by the Bard, these types of movies always have a Shakespearian quality. As all the pieces are carefully moved into place for the final showdown, Samurai Rebellion builds towards inevitable Greek tragedy. There are no huge Kurosawa-esque battles here, but plenty of inner turmoil as Isaburo wrestles with obeying his liberty-taking ruler and standing for what he knows is right. After years of tending to his clans armoury (this is set during the peaceful Edo period), Isaburo gleefully cries out that he has never felt so alive. The finale is a bloody set-piece that demonstrates Mifune's natural skill with a blade as Isaburo lets loose, and is the perfect ending to a film built on hushed glances and political manoeuvring. One of the finest examples of its genre.

drewconnor "The Greatest Evil is when Good Men do nothing in the face of Injustice..." SAMURAI REBELLION (1967) is directed by Masaki Kobayashi, the same director responsible for the awesome KWAIDAN and the far superior samurai film "Hara-Kiri". Don't get me wrong, this film is a true emotional achievement by Kobayashi, the drama and intense screenplay is magnificent that even the awesome swordplay displayed on screen seemed utterly unnecessary. "Samurai Rebellion" is a stunning masterpiece in Japanese cinema, originally titled Joiuchi Hairyo tsuma Shimatsu (Rebellion, Receive the Wife) is a tale of righteous rebellion to protect a husband and his wife's honor.Peacetime. A retainer in the Matsudaira clan named Isaburo Sasahara (Toshiro Mifune) is a retiring samurai who seeks a wife for his son Yogoro (Go Kato). However, his Clan Lord orders him to have his son marry a woman named Ichi (Yoko Tsukasa). She is the Lord's mistress and she has just given birth to his son. Ichi has caused a scandal and has been dismissed from the castle for striking Lord Matsudaira. Isaburo refuses to the union until the son himself agrees to the marriage. Surprisingly, Ichi proves to be a worthy wife; she and Yogoro get along famously and she bears him a daughter. Then the unexpected happens, Matsudaira's heir dies, which makes Ichi's son the heir apparent. Matsudaira decides to forgive Ichi for striking him and requests her return to his castle, since the mother of the heir cannot be married to a vassal. Ichi refuses and decides to stay married to Yogoro. Ruin may come to the house of Sasahara as Isaburo and his son decides to disobey; the Azu clan has gone too far.The film is a stunning portrayal of righteousness in the face of injustice. The film effectively explores the social impact of rebellion in the midst of a totalitarian excesses in the Edo Period in Japan as well as the domestic tragedy of the honorable men and the wife who precipitated the events. As in "Hara-Kiri", Kobayashi gives a very bleak view of the political and social injustices committed by self-indulgent authority figures. Kobayashi further delves into the emotional expression of similar themes about family and honor. The main characters are victims of fate, and the lead characters stand tall in their righteous indignations. Even Isaburo's close friend; Tatewaki Asano (played by Tatsuya Nakadai, Hara-Kiri, Sword of Doom) is also a victim of his principles and fate. Tatewaki was instructed to engage Isaburo in combat since he is the only one who may be able to defeat him in a duel, and as much as he tries to stall the inevitable encounter, he ends up crossing swords with his old friend nonetheless.Ichi is the most interesting female character I've ever come across in chambara films. She is strong-willed and while she did give in to Matsudaira's orders before, she is unmoved to suffer the same injustice a second time. Pressured by relatives to avoid the ruin of the Sasahara family, the woman is such a sight to behold; she outshines the heroism of the two men bent on defending her. Most classic chambara films portray Japanese women as a demure, obedient and ideal wives, and while Ichi's character are all those things; Yoko Tsukasa's devastating performance has created a character far stronger than the all the males around her; this includes her husband, played by Go Sato and her father-in-law, played by Toshiro Mifune.Toshiro Mifune's character, Isaburo is a master swordsman, whose skills have earned him the position of weapons keeper in the clan. While he did marry his wife out for the sake of social status, never for one moment that his character felt weak. Quite curious that this past may have contributed to the reasons as to why the father would support his son's decisions to disobey their lord. For him, love is a cause worth fighting for, even if it would mean his family's ruin. Yogoro is a man divided in doing his duty to his lord and to his wife, Go Kato bears his soul in his portrayal though his screen time may be limited. The actor efficiently and effectively shows all the needed emotions that an overwhelmed husband would feel.While I did say that the film didn't need any swordplay to emulate the darkness and intensity of the proceedings, we get it anyway. Toshiro Mifune once again proves why he is among the most loved actors to ever play a samurai warrior. The swordplay is realistic and intense, and follows the choreography that we have been privy to in past samurai films. Adding the strong exclamation point brought about by the duel with his Tatsuya Nakadai, the film satisfies those looking for swordplay action. Which also brings us to the film's one possible very minor fault, the bloodshed near the climax seemed a bit pointless, since the dilemma is over but I suppose the screenplay by Hashimoto Shinobu wanted to end the film with an exciting element for international audiences. (The title has been changed to fit international marketing)In Samurai Rebellion, director Kobayashi has taken his character study of individuals pushed against their emotional tolerances to the absolute limit. He successfully overcomes the stereotype that samurai films are composed of manly swordfights and has given new emphasis on the strengths of the Japanese woman and the aspects of family. In doing so, he has widened his scope and elevated the film's emotional potential.

Cosmoeticadotcom The two hour long film, which won the FIPRESCI Award at the 1967 Venice Film Festival, whose original Japanese title is Jōi-uchi: Hairyō Tsuma Shimatsu (上意討ち拝領妻始末), or Rebellion Of The Wife Received, is in a sense, more accurate a description of what the film portrays. In many ways, Samurai Rebellion is the first small f feminist samurai film. Set in the early 1700s, Mifune's Isaburo finds that he wants to step down and let his oldest son, Yogoro (Takeshi 'Go' Kato) take over the family- a feudal class family dependent upon a local warlord. Yogoro has been ordered to marry a rebellious mistress of the lord, Ichi (Yoko Tsukasa), after she has been forced into sexual slavery to bear him a backup male heir. She attacks the lord, when she finds him with another concubine- not out of jealousy, but resentment that she was used, basically, as a walking, talking vagina for the old lech. Initially reluctant to marry her, Yogoro submits, and finds that they are well matched and find true love, including her bearing him a daughter named Tomi. Ichi forswears her son by the lord. Isaburo is greatly moved by their love, as his own marriage to Yogoro's nasty mother, Suga (Michiko Otsuka) has been loveless, with only Yogoro as a balm. His other son, Bunzo (Tatsuyoshi Ehara), is a craven drone, who eventually betrays the family. After two years, the lord's oldest male heir dies of an illness, and the lord wants Ichi to come back to the castle. This ideal of pretense, and looking good for others' benefit, permeates the film with a great evil, as all the background characters seem little more than roaches, unable and unwilling to question the unethical behavior of their lord, even as most know that if it was brought to the attention of the shogun in Edo, the clan would be disbanded.Bunzo lures Ichi into a trap, and she returns to the castle, but instead of signing a false document claiming that the Sasahara family gives up claims to her, Isaburo convinces his son to fight for his wife and their love. He promises both of them to do so, for their love has reinvigorated his outlook on life. This rejection of the legal document brands the two men as traitors, and assassins are sent to kill them. However, Ichi appears with a set of assassins, and rejects the steward's claim that she quitclaims her rights as a member of the Sasaharas. She has been offered that the lives of her husband and father-in-law will be spared, but does not deny her love, and impales herself on one of her captor's spears. Yogoro rushes to protect her, as she dies in his arms. He is then hacked to death by the assassins, as Isaburo dispatches a couple dozen of them, before impaling the cowardly steward on his own sword. He then buries his son's and daughter-in-law's bodies, and tells the wet nurse sent in Ichi's place that he and Tomi are off to Edo, to tell the shogun of his clan's evil ways, to bring them down.On the way, he has to leave his lord's kingdom through a gate guarded by his old friend, Tatewaki Asano (Tatsuya Nakadai, Japan's second biggest male star of the era, behind Mifune). Without proper papers, Asano says they will have to fight. They do, after feeding Tomi, and Asano's agreeing to be Tomi's foster father should he defeat Isaburo. Asano throws the duel to Isaburo- the only time a Nakadai character lost to a Mifune character in a samurai film without it being based on the Mifune character's innate swordly superiority (although the ending was preordained by the film's opening scene. Then, Isaburo is preyed upon by more of the lord's assassins, this time wielding guns. They repeatedly shoot him until he dies, and the film ends with the wet nurse picking Tomi up, clearly being the source of the betrayal and death of Isaburo, who laments, in his last breaths, that now no one will know of this outrage- one of the countless instances of injustices history glosses over via ignorance, and urging Tomi to grow up and be like her mother, then marry a man like her father.And just as the claims to being Shakespearean are inapt, and undersell this film's qualities, let me invert such askew praise, and aptly praise the film by comparing it to two films as different from it as can be. Samurai Rebellion is, in its own way, as perfect and great a film experience as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, as it flawlessly combines philosophy, action, ethics, characterization, and many other elements, into a brew for the eyes and mind that has few equals. Thus nonpareil, any future works in the same vein need not be recklessly mislabeled under the moniker of a dead English playwright, but under that of a dead Japanese filmmaker: Kobayashian. There's your justice, o Isaburo!

samuraifa451 Toshiro Mifune works with director Masaki Kobayashi in the samurai film "Samurai Rebellion" but the results are not what they should be. When their lord requests the marriage of his mistress to his son, Isaburo (Mifune) is reluctant to comply. However, two years later, the two start to develop feelings for each other and Isaburo starts to change his mind. Though when the lord orders for her return both Isaburo and his son Yogoro (Go Kato) decide to take a stand. If nothing else, "Samurai Rebellion" is worth a watch because of its gorgeous cinematography and Mifune's intense performance. The problem starts when it gets less and less believable. At a number of points it seems as if Isaburo cares about their relationship than anyone else in the cast, his son included. As a result a few moments near the end almost come off like a soap opera. "Samurai Rebellion" is not a bad film but it is not the best film in either Mifune's or Kobayashi's repertoire.