WritingLife's Full Review: Samurai 2 - Duel at Ichijoji Temple
The second installment of the trilogy contains less action and more about Musashi’s spiritual quest -- yet the death toll is much higher, peaking during a battle in a rice paddy where Musashi takes on eighty attackers at once and beats them all. Musashi strives for spiritual growth, but is continually meeting threats and obstacles. There are temptations, too -- naive and innocent Otsu who waits patiently for him at Kyoto bridge, the cultured courtesan Lady Yoshino who falls for Musashi when he’s taken to visit a geisha house, the tragic Akemi, who has built Musashi up in her mind to heroic proportions and is sure he’ll come, in the style of Prince Charming, and rescue her from her dismal life. Matahachi is still in the wings, now trapped between his old friend and the forces that want to kill Musashi. Oko by this time has taken up with a wealthier lover, carrying out her affair in the front of the house while Matahachi gets drunk in the back. There is the young swordsman Seijuro, whom Oko wants to fix up with Akemi, and who ends up taking Akemi by force before he rashly challenges Musashi to battle. And there is the mysterious Kojiro who watches Musashi carefully, sizing him up and managing at least part of the violence from the background.
Musashi’s quest for growth is brilliantly contrasted with the failure of his fellow samurai -- in fact, the entire Yoshioka school -- to follow the principles that were meant to guide warriors in honor-bound medieval Japan. Disgusted with lack of honor among samurai, Musashi learns to use his sword more gently while his rivals deteriorate into honorless thugs. While Musashi grows with each challenge, his rivals slowly disintegrate.
The story begins with Musashi in a duel with a chain-and-sickle fighter, whom he dispatches. He’s confronted by an elderly man who tells him that swordsmanship is chivalry. He also meets a young boy who wants to learn his craft, and eventually becomes his pupil. Otsu, we learn, is selling fans at Kyoto Bridge, eking out a living as best she can while she waits for her beloved to return. Akemi, in the meantime, is being groomed to lure Seijuro Yoshioka into marrying her.
Hot-blooded young samurai from the Yoshioka school challenge Musashi and lose pitifully, bringing disgrace on the school. After the fight, Musashi takes his sword to be cleaned and polished, since it got a bit battered in the chain and sickle fight. The master sword polisher at first turns him away. His sign reads, “Souls of samurai polished.” Later he does agree to take Musashi’s sword, and also shows him the sword of a handsome and skilled young swordsman, Kojiro. The sword is called simply, “Clothes Rod.”
Seijuro, miffed at the loss of his boys, miffed at the underhandedness of Oko, and miffed that his ersatz fiancee secretly loves Musashi, grabs Akemi and rapes her while Oko, going for the evil mother of the year award, ignores her screams.
Musashi, in the meantime, runs into Otsu at Kyoto bridge. Their reunion is brief and sweet, but Musashi cannot stay -- in fact, he is ambushed at Kyoto bridge by Seijuiro’s men. Handsome young Kojiro views the battle, and demonstrates his skill with “Clothes Rod” by neatly snipping off a man’s topknot.
Otsu loses track of Musashi after the battle and searches for him. She encounters poor traumatized Akemi, who declares that she’s in love with Musashi. Otsu can hardly believe her ears. She flees to her home village and seeks shelter with the priest, Takuan. She considers taking the veil, believing her beloved dead, but later changes her mind abruptly when she learns that Musashi is still alive.
Musashi meets up again with the sword-polisher who invites him to the pleasure house of Lady Yoshino. He hears Lady Yoshino sing, but seems to take little pleasure in the house devoted to pleasant things. Lady Yoshino is impressed by Musashi. She offers him shelter from his enemies, and a good deal more if he wants it, but he refuses her advances.
Oko deserts Akemi, who resorts to working in a house of prostitution for a living. Akemi feels that, following the rape, she is “soiled,” and she no longer cares what men do with her. It’s at the brothel that Kojiro finds her and intercedes, tossing a bag of money at her pimp and taking Akemi away.
Seijuro delivers a challenge to a duel, and Matahachi is drawn into the battle opposite his old friend. He is defeated, and Seijuro’s men lie in wait for Musashi. A battle of eighty against one ensues, and Musashi defeats his attackers by luring them into a rice paddy, where they must come at him one at a time across the dikes or leave themselves vulnerable by wallowing across the mud toward him. He meets and defeats Seijuro, despite his exhaustion and Seijuro’s comparative freshness.
Duel At Ichijoji Temple Recounts The Education Of Musashi, And Depicts His Wanderings Through The Turmoil Of 17th Century, Japan In Search Of Both The...More at HotMovieSale.com
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