Movie # 4 - 47 Ronin 3D

47 Ronin is set in ancient feudal Japan, starring an entirely Japanese cast to tell the (loosely) based on a true story tale of the 47 Ronin (samurais with no masters), except for the fact that they have thrown in Keanu Reeves to play an outcast wannabe samurai who leads a band of former samurai to avenge the death of their former master. The tale of the 47 Ronin is a famous one in Japan that has been told in many different ways over time.  Never before though, I suspect, has it been told in English starring the biggest "dude" in America as an honourable, graceful Samurai!

The movie begins with a young boy running from an unseen threat and falling into a creek where he is saved by Lord Asano when his leader of his guards, Oishi, would have killed the boy.  Asano has apparently seen something special in the boy, who we raises in his village and allows to grow up with his daughter Mika.  Switch to modern day and Kai (Keanu) is a tolerated outcast as the samurai all think he is half-demon, but Asano's protection keeps him around, teaches him sword play and there is a hint of a romance with Mika.  Asano's village is about to receive a visit from the almighty Shogun (the ruler of the whole land) and Kai spots a strange wolf while out on a hunt with Asano and the guard to rid the village of a killer beast.  The wolf turns out to be a witch spying for Lord Kira, an ambitious young lord who wants to expand his empire.

During the visit to Ako by the Shogun and Lord Kira, we see Kai's fighting skills in action when he takes the place of Asano's fighter who has been poisoned by the witch.  But that is just a diversion as the real target is for the witch to cast a spell over Asano which causes him to try to attack Kira.  When discovered, Asano is sentenced to death by the Shogun, who allows him to commit seppaku (also known as hara-kiri: a ritual suicide which restores honour).  The samurai are disbanded, becoming ronin, and forbidden to seek revenge for their master. Lord Kira is appointed as Ako's new Lord and he is betrothed to marry Mika in 12 months' time.  Oishi is thrown in a pit to break his spirit and Kai is sold into slavery.  Everything has gone wrong, but on Oishi's release he is determined to break the decree and get revenge on Lord Kira.  He assembles the ronin and seeks out Kai who he knows will help save Mika from her fate.

The movie continues at a good pace as the ronin set out on their mission.  The plot is pretty senseless (why doesn't Kira just go for the Shogun if he is so ambitious and powerful via his witch?, who are the demons who raised Kai?, why does the Shogun forbid the ronin to seek revenge if he thinks Asano was guilty of the crime - there would be nothing to avenge?, how do many of the ronin escape the witch's clutches at the first clash?) but the action scenes are reasonably good with the sword fights and the final battle is suitably epic.  The witch (played by Rinko Kikuchi from Pacific Rim and Babel) is quite menacing but a little over the top in her venom.  However a good performance by Hiroyuki Sanada (who recently played the Japanese guard in The Railway Man) as Oishi is offset by the performance by Keanu Reeves.  He tries to bring the required melancholy of a half-breed outcast whose love can never be officially approved, but can't shake off his Californian dude mannerisms to convincingly play an awesome samurai and romantic leading man.  Keanu needs a walking coach to change his walk!

There is a large component of fantasy elements brought to this version of the tale which put a different twist on the usual samurai film, which could be seen as a bit silly.  But if you like your blockbusters fun and dumb, you won't mind.  As a fan of samurai films who doesn't mind a bit of silliness, I would have given this three stars but I'm subtracting 1/2 a star for the fact that everyone speaks in English.  This would have been way more convincing if spoken in Japanese with subtitles.  So it's a 2.5 stars out of 5 for this one.