Bushido, Samurai Saga
武士道残酷物語
1963
Golden Bear — 13th Berlin International Film Festival
- Director:
- Tadashi Imai
- Studio:
- Toei Company
- Starring:
- Kinnosuke Nakamura
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Spanning seven generations of a Japanese family from the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate to the early 1960s, the film traces how each generation's men sacrifice themselves and their loved ones in the name of absolute loyalty to lord, country, or company. The pattern repeats across centuries until Susumu, the last male heir, witnesses his own fiancée's suicide attempt and finally refuses to continue the family's cycle of blind devotion. Tadashi Imai's samurai epic uses the recurring tragedy to indict a code of loyalty that consumes everyone who serves it.