A Samurai Movie Rhapsody: Filming the Ultimate Swordfight
2019
119 minutes
Overview
This is a “Movie in a Movie” like no other ever before. Kyoei, a historical film studio in Kyoto (Modeled on Toei), is asked by NHK to make a new samurai era program using the most advanced technology. While the elderly filmmakers at Kyoei are struggling with the high-tech equipment, their skills at creating choreographed sword battles are undiminished. The NHK project will dramatize the Ikedaya incident, which was a raid launched by the Shinsengumi against Imperial loyalists gathered at an inn called Ikedaya in Kyoto during the twilight years of the Tokugawa shogunate. A series of problems occur and the climax they reach after overcoming difficulties is an unprecedented attempt at a 360° one-cut scene involving the world’s most advanced high-speed camera and wire action for a scene where Kondo Isami will fall down the stairs at Ikedaya. Can they succeed in filming the single greatest swordfight scene in samurai movie history?!?
Top Cast
Seiyo Uchino
Tasuku Emoto
Shido Nakamura
Miki Mizuno
Takahiro Fujimoto
Akira Hamada
Mitsuo Sagawa
Hirotaro Honda
Masatô Ibu
Renji Ishibashi
Kōtarō Satomi
