47 Ronin, Part 2, The

Saturday, Dec. 12 at 8:00 AM EDT

1941 | 108 min. | Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | TVPG
Part Two of Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi's 47 Ronin contines to follow the course of vengeance plotted by Ronin (samurai) warrior Oishi. It is now 1703, nearly two years after the suicide of Oishi's leader, Lord Arano. Knowing that Arano was hoodwinked into committing hara-kiri by the evil Lord Kira, Oishi has assembled 47 loyal warriors to lay waste to Kira's domain. Remarkably, this spectacular production was made while Japan was deeply embroiled in World War 2. Not the first movie adaptation of Seika Mayama's classic story, and far from the last, the 1942 version of 47 Ronin was undoubtedly the best and most popular; it was also one of the least typical filmic efforts of director Mizoguchi, who was more at home with sociological and feminist dramas.