Ronin Gai

With a storyline that has so much promise, and as a tribute to the father of its genre (chambera/jidai-geki), I found this version of Ronin Gai to be both weak and disappointing. The editing and camera-work were dull, close-ups that were cried out for failed to materialize, the incidental music was irrelevant, and characterizations while promising, never attained their potential. The director was supposedly inspired to become such by Kurosawa's work, but aside from a few half-hearted rip-offs there is absolutely nothing of that great director's magic here. This is a bland samurai film in the extreme, and very disappointing.