On the surface, a Samurai film seems an uncharacteristic change of direction for Koreeda, and it certainly strikes you as a film pitched at a far wider audience than Marbarosi or Nobody Knows. For one thing, it’s funny and entertaining, and full of jokes. But gradually it becomes clear how this film fits into his humanist concerns as much as any other, for Koreeda is intent on undermining the ethos of the samurai and the samurai film in every respect. In this sense it’s very far from the likes of The Twilight Samurai (or a Western equivalent like Unforgiven), the type of film that both sets itself as critiquing a genre and also gives the punters what they want, an explosion of violence at the end. Koreeda is having nothing of this. There’s no violence – apart from one early scene, there to illustrate the utter ineptness of our reluctant samurai hero – and the film is absolute in its opposition to the world of the samurai. Even if it’s not the equal of his previous films, Hana is still a film of great warmth, humanity, and integrity.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
25 Jul 2007 12:56 PM | Submit Comment
