The Unforgiven (2013)

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Movie
German title The Unforgiven
Original title Yurusarezaru Mono
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese , Ainu
Publishing year 2013
length 135 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Lee Sang-il
script Lee Sang-il
production Suguru Kubota ,
Shinichi Takahashi
music Taro Iwashiro
camera Norimichi Kasamatsu
cut Tsuyoshi Imai
occupation

The Unforgiven (original title: 許 さ れ ざ る 者 , Yurusarezaru Mono ) is a Japanese Jidai-geki by Lee Sang-il with Ken Watanabe , Akira Emoto and Kōichi Satō in the leading roles. The film is a remake of Clint Eastwood's  1992 Western Merciless and ran out of competition at the 2013 Venice Film Festival and subsequently at a number of other festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival .

The plot closely follows the 1992 film, but relocates the Hokkaidō event to the early Meiji period . Jubei Kamata ( Ken Watanabe ), a former samurai , is encouraged by an old companion to collect the bounty for two men who have disfigured a prostitute.

In Germany, the film opened in cinemas on December 4, 2014.

action

At the beginning of the Meiji period , the former samurai Jubei Kamata flees from government forces to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō . Jubei kills his pursuers and disappears, but remains notorious under the name "Jubei the Killer".

Years later, two brothers, Sanosuke and Unosuke Hotta, disfigure a prostitute in a border town. The local law enforcement officer, Ichizo Oishi, lets her run with only a light sentence instead of putting her on trial in Sapporo . He sees this as a fairer punishment for bodily harm than the execution demanded by the prostitute. The other prostitutes then collect money for a bounty that they put on the two brothers. This piques the interest of some bounty hunters, including Kingo Baba, who is an old companion of Jubei Kamata. When one of the bounty hunters, Masaharu Kitaoji, shows up in the city with his biographer Himeji, Oishi tells him to lay down his arms because it is forbidden to carry weapons in the city. Kitaoji complies, but is then beaten and humiliated by Oishi. The following day, Oishi threw Kitaoji out of town. Meanwhile, Himeji stayed to write about Oishi.

Meanwhile, Kingo follows Jubei's trail to a small farm, where he lives in poverty with his two children. Although Jubei hesitates at first, Kingo finally persuades him to help him collect the bounty for the two brothers. On their way they get company from Goro Sawada, a cheeky half- Ainu who prides himself on having already killed five men. When the trio reaches the border town, Oishi becomes aware of Jubei at the inn. He mocks, hits, and wounds Jubei, but leaves him alive. Kingo and Goro, who are upstairs with the prostitutes, remain unharmed. After Jubei could be restored with the help of the prostitute, the three men go on the trail of one of the brothers and kill him. Jubei carries out the deed because Kingo is unable to do so. He admits that he doesn't have the guts to kill. He hands Jubei his weapon and rides off. Jubei and Goro, on the other hand, return to the city to finish off the other brother. Jubei instructs Goro to finish off Hotta while he is sitting in the outhouse. After a brawl, Goro stabs him with a knife.

When Jubei receives the bounty from the prostitute, he learns of Kingo's death, which was killed by Oishi's men. He returns to the city for revenge. Before leaving, he asks Goro and the disfigured prostitute Natsume to hand over his portion of the bounty to his children and look after them. Jubei returns to the inn, where a fight ensues between him and Oishi and his people. Although Jubei is wounded several times, he manages to kill Oishi and several of his men. The survivors finally run away. Jubei asks Himeji, Oishi's biographer, to write down what he has seen.

After Natsume and Goro arrive at Jubei's farm, they decide to settle there to look after Jubei's children. They are full of hope that one day Jubei will return. In the last scene he is riding alone through the snow, somewhere in Hokkaidō.

background

The fate of the Ainu is mentioned several times, who mainly live on the island of Hokkaido and who were exposed to strong "Japanization efforts" especially during and after the Meiji Restoration . In the film z. It has been shown, for example, that Japanese soldiers tear the traditional earrings out of the earlobes of an Ainu. In addition, the Ainu, easily recognizable because of their beards (the Japanese are usually beardless), are insulted by the Japanese as "monkeys" and "savages".

criticism

The film received almost exclusively positive reviews. At Rotten Tomatoes , 100% of the reviews are positive with a total of 14 reviews. The film-dienst spoke of an “autonomous film with its own themes and ideas”, which was “rougher and less illusory in tone than the original”. The villain would be interpreted by Kōichi Satō "more inhuman and underhanded" than by Gene Hackman in the original. In addition, Lee gives the final confrontation "more action and movement, with a wild, unforeseen ending that also releases the main character into a different fate". A separate note would be "achieved by adding the tragedy of the Ainu Japanese natives , who suffered a fate similar to that of the Indians". Lee show "in some scenes how rigorously the troops of the Tennōs then dealt with this minority"; it is, "as in the whole film, about violence and its grotesque consequences".

Cinema judged that Watanabe was “almost too young for the role of the aging avenger”, but mastered it “with silent elegance”. At his side the "great Kōichi Satō shines as a brutal villain". The “excellent camera work and the majestic landscapes” would do the rest. Epd Film compared the “large, opulent widescreen pictures” and “their painterly precision” with those of Sergio Leone . The snow-covered landscapes of Hokkaido would invite the eye to linger again and again: “a beautiful, white and innocent nature into which man carries violence”.

Awards

Norimichi Kasamatsu won the Japanese Academy Awards for Best Cinematography after being nominated three times. Koichi Watanabe also received the award in the Best Lighting category . Were nominated Ken Watanabe and Mitsuo Harada and Ryo Sugimoto in the category Best Art Direction . The camera and production design also received nominations at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival . Moreover, the film was in the Blue Ribbon Awards and the Yokohama Film Festival as Best Picture nomination.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Release Info. Internet Movie Database , accessed December 8, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Cameron Bailey: Unforgiven. Toronto International Film Festival archived from the original on February 28, 2014 ; accessed on December 8, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Toronto Adds 75+ Titles To 2013 Edition . In: Indiewire . Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b c The Unforgiven. film-dienst , 25/2014, accessed on December 8, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Yurusarezaru mono (Unforgiven) (2014). Rotten Tomatoes , accessed December 8, 2014 .
  6. ↑ a b The Unforgiven (2013). Cinema , accessed December 8, 2014 .
  7. ↑ a b Frank Schnelle: The Unforgiven. Epd Film , November 17, 2014, accessed December 8, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Awards. Norimichi Kasamatsu. Internet Movie Database , accessed December 8, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Awards. The Unforgiven (2013). Internet Movie Database , accessed December 8, 2014 .