Liner Notes for Samurai Films

A “Good-Time-Charlie” is typically defined as a friend who is only a friend as long as the times are good, but “Dora-Heita” carries a slightly different meaning. Koheita is partially nicknamed after “dora neko,” or an alley cat. This is because, like an alley cat, he is a flirt and can in general be a bossy person.

The fictional account of the 47 Ronin's tale of revenge is known as Chushingura, and has been told and retold in almost all forms of media. There have been at least 22 different television series, 10 of which were produced in the last 10 years, and almost as many feature films devoted to the subject, and they're often shown in the month of December to commemorate the event.

Lone Wolf & Cub takes place in mid-eastern Japan, sometime during the early Tokugawa Era (approximately 1603-1868, also called Edo Period), the period named for the 15 generations of Tokugawa Shogun (Military Overlords) who ruled the nation, maintaining a relatively static society, for over 250 years. This period of military-rule was characterized by its relatively peaceful order overall, clear division of the social hierarchy, extravagance by the privileged classes, isolation from the West, and a lot of convoluted treachery, as well as many important cultural and intellectual developments.

Miyamoto Musashi (1584?-1645?), inventor of the "Nito" (two-sword) fighting style, was a reasonably well-known figure in Japan during his life. However, it was only after the publication of Yoshikawa Eiji's newspaper serial "Miyamoto Musashi," starting in 1935, that he became a legend. The subsequent novel, Musashi, while based on historical fact, contains considerable amounts of fiction as well. However, the novel has enjoyed immense success over the years as one of the most famous books in the world, selling over 120 million copies worldwide (more than The Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia books series), and has been termed the “Gone with the Wind of Japan.”

The last few years of Tokugawa rule were characterized by an unstable, highly chaotic political scene. The arrival of US Admirals Perry in 1853, and Harris in 1856, offered convincing proof that the western nations were far more advanced than Japan was in every way, especially in matters military, economic and technological. This realization planted the seeds of the final downfall of the Shogunate, which was by this time considerably weakened.

Samurai Assassin is loosely based on one of the most important and complex events in Japanese history, namely the so-called "Sakurada-mon-gai-no-Hen" (Sakurada Gate Incident) of 1860, in which a high Shogunate official named Ii Naosuke was assassinated by a group of anti-Shogunate terrorists. Ii's murder marked the beginning of the end for the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Shinobi no Mono is the first film in a massively popular ninja series which sparked the first “ninja boom” in Japan. Award-winning director Satsuo YAMAMOTO helmed the first film of the series, immediately getting rid of the fabricated, special effects laden look of the past and moving toward a more rustic look and feel, more akin to the realities of ninja life.

Shogun Assassin was created by editing together footage from the first two Lone Wolf and Cub (Kozure Ookami) films, Sword of Vengeance” and “Baby Cart at The River Styx”. It uses about 11 minutes of footage from the first film and 70 minutes of footage from the second.

The Creation of The Blind Menace Unlike Ichikawa Raizo, Daiei’s other big star, Katsu Shintaro took a much longer time to establish himself. The studio originally tried hard to push Shintaro as one of its handsome leading men, in the same mold as Raizo and Hasegawa Kazuo. However, despite continued strong support from Daiei’s president, Shintaro’s looks did not appeal to audiences and his films were not hits, causing many theater owners to repeatedly ask the studio to stop using him. The real turning point in his career came with The Blind Menace. When Shintaro first read the story, he fell in love with it and did everything he could to turn it into a film. He completely devoted himself to the character, shaving his head and practicing the nuances of being blind. The film’s staff, screenwriter Inuzuka Minoru, and director Mori Kazuo were inspired by his devotion, resulting in a cinematic masterpiece that pushed the trio to the forefront of Japanese cinema. Katsu Shintaro finally had his breakthrough role.

The original Japanese title of the film, “Semishigure,” literally means “outburst of cicadas,” and refers to the loud chorus of the cicadas song, raining down from the trees. “Semi” means cicada and “Shigure” refers to scattered showers. Cicadas are a special and familiar insect to the Japanese people, as over 30 species live in Japan, and they're omnipresent in the summer. Their songs are often representative of summer itself, and sometimes used to express the accompanying heat.