Bakumatsu taiyôden

Not the easiest film for a non Japanese to follow and certainly not an easy one to review. I see I am the first to make any sort of attempt. There is always some difficulty with period films from Japan because we on the outside seem to have so little knowledge of that history and are immediately at a disadvantage. There is another difficult when it comes to comedy. So much Japanese humour seems to be derived from word play (as in England) and unfortunately if you are relying upon a subtitle translation inevitably there is going to be a problem with the subtlety being 'lost in translation'. Another obstacle for modern western viewers is what I tend to refer to as the crazy slapstick tendency. It happens in Chinese as well as Japanese films and again does not always translate well to others. I think this is made more difficult here because the lead was a well known funny man and much of what he does will have been funny through familiarity. Despite all that, the film is well shot, everything happens at a frantic pace, there are no ponderous or slow passages but you do have to try and remember who is who. Another difficulty for western views but I shall not be expanding upon that. A much loved film in its native country and surely worth a watch.