47 RONIN (2013)

Umpteenth telling of this inscrutably Japanese national story given a wholly misconceived CGI/Hollywood treatment for Keanu Reeves, making an already distasteful saga of revenge & martyrdom cheap & meaningless by adding demons, witches & various metaphysical cop-outs.  The basic story isn’t hard to sum up: Inside the Shogun’s palace, a feudal Lord breaks decorum drawing his sword on a personal grudge against a fellow Lord.  The punishment?  Ritual suicide and loss of his fiefdom & retainers.  His personal army of Samurai disbursed to roam as independent ‘Ronin.’  The men vow revenge against the unharmed Lord, followed by honorable mass ritual suicide just like their late Lord.  Hey, we’ve got The Alamo, right?  And like The Alamo, this one gets twisted this way and that to fit various eras.  Stately & inert in 1941 wartime Japan, distanced as much as possible by Kenji Mizoguchi (did he even want to make it?); plushly corporate from Hiroshi Inagaki in CHUSHINGURA/’62; physically stunning but oddly debunked in Ken Ichikawa’s 47 RONIN/’94, undercut rather than glorified.  Here, Hollywood tried to make things acceptable (make that internationally sellable) with a half-breed hero (Reeves) who sports supernatural powers which he reluctantly uses only against witches, demons & supernatural monsters.  Goodbye pure national Japanese attributes.  Instead of unwavering nobility in the face of impossible odds and inner victory thru death, the story now reads as No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, with Keanu taking it on the chin (and elsewhere) whenever he does the right thing for the house that never appreciated him and the court lady whose love can neither be demonstrated nor accessed.  And with the rest of the cast speaking English with various degrees of accent, the action laid out in confusing or unconvincing fashion, and none of the crucial relationships reverberating, director Carl Rinsch hasn’t made a feature since.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  On the other hand, you can amuse yourself for a minute or two, noting how much Reeves’ rival-turned-buddy Hiroyuki Sanada looks like he’s Steven Yeun’s uncle.  Or how his character steals Shakespearean tropes from HENRY IV Part II.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Two 47 variants mentioned above.  CHUSHINGURA and Ichikawa’s.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/chushingura-1962.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/47-ronin-shijushichinin-no-shikaku-1995.html