I've always been a fan of foreign films, so I decided to check out a classic film from Japan called Bushido: The Cruel Code of The Samurai (Bushidô zankoku monogatari), a true gem from 1963 from renowned filmmaker Tadashi Imai.  It's an interesting film that follows the life of a young Japanese man (Nakamura Kinosuke from Shogun's Samurai, Goyokin) attending to his dying fiancé (Mita Yoshiko, Samaritan Zatoichi) who just attempted suicide.  He struggles to find out what brought her to do such a thing, and thinks back to some old family diaries he read after his mother passed away.  As he reads the diaries, we're treated to a series of flashbacks showing the young man's ancestors that date back to the samurai era, which show the choices and sacrifices his family made through the years to please their leaders throughout the decades.

I was really impressed with how Nakamura portrayed the role of all his character’s ancestors.  It's pretty amazing how he goes from being a samurai who's willing to give up his life to follow his lord into the afterlife, to playing a father who is asked to give up his underage daughter as a bribe to get in good with a senior official.  The movie even touches on homosexuality in the samurai era, as he later plays a young samurai that catches the eye of his lord, only to be used for his twisted pleasures.  The tragic stories continue until we're finally caught up to the young man in the present, as he decides what changes are needed to break the cycle of tragedy in his family.

Connoisseurs of Japanese film will probably find it interesting that this film is the first of only two Japanese films to win the Golden Bear award from the Berlin Film Festival (the second being Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away in 2002).  I liked how director Imai went to great pains to show how unfair he felt the samurai code was, as its presence continued to be felt long into present Japan.  As a lot of companies expect workers to give their entire lives to them, as though they are samurai, ready to give up their lives for their leader.

The DVD itself is packed with plenty of extras we've come to expect, including image galleries, bios, trailers, and program notes.  AnimEigo's reissue even includes an essay by samurai scholar Randy Schadel as part of the special features.  He talks about the truth behind bushido, and how it was a code enforced on people, but followed by few of the ones who enforced it  themselves.

Bushido: The Cruel Code of The Samurai (Bushidô zankoku monogatari) is an excellent film, and is one that deftly explores the role of bushido in post-war Japanese society through karmic cycles. Nakamura Kinosuke gives several outstanding performances, and the DVD itself is packed with interesting facts and cultural notes. All in all, AnimEigo has brought over yet another Japanese classic and treated it with the best of care as with their previous releases.  If you're at all interested in classic films that explorer the darker side of samurai culture, you'll enjoy this film.