G.M. Watson wrote:
>It's likely because
>of this humanist stance that Mizoguchi only made two more films during
>the war, both of them relatively short (60-75 minutes) period films of
>no great distinction. One of them was a biopic of the great swordsman
>Miyamoto Musashi, another great hero in the Japanese warrior pantheon;
>probably this was another propaganda piece Mizoguchi was ordered to
>make.
"Meito bijomaru" (The Famous Sword) from ealy 1945 is definitely a
propaganda piece. The message is "obey to the emperor under any
circumstances!". The emperor in the film is Meiji, but the reference
to (and reverence for) the contemporary emperor is obvious. The
most interesting part of the film is the making of the eponymous
sword.
Manfred |