Review of 47 Ronin (1994) by James R — 19 Jul 2014

Not as bad as all the critics were saying, but not exactly a must see either. 47 Ronin is the tale of a band of Ronin (masterless Samurai) seeking to avenge the death of their master. The premise is pretty simple here and that almost hurts this film.

The movie is based on a Japanese Tale thats celebrated even today. There's really just no character development at all. Keanu Reeves stars as Kai a half Japanese half English outcast who has lived with the samurai since he was young.

He falls in love with Princess Mika (Ko Shibasaki), but knows they can never be together. The Evil Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano) plans to take over the lands of the Samurai and enlists the help of an evil witch (Rinko Kikuchi).

Together they stage a plot which leads to the death of Mika's father Lord Asano (Min Tanaka). Lord Asanos Samurai warriors lead by the brave Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada) are deemed Ronin and banished from the land and Kai is sent to be a slave with a band of Dutch pirates.

A year passes by and Oishi sets out to avenge Lord Asano's death. Overall, this sounds like an epic plot, but its thrown at you fast and hard to take in just with one sitting. Kai is supposedly the main character, but after awhile it just doesn't make much sense that he's in the film other than having an audience member say, "Oh hey look a whitish person like me!" The characters are thin and aren't entirely too believable and this hurts the film.

The ending wasn't a problem for me. No Spoilers here, but it makes sense overall with the theme of honor. Overall, this is a rent at the very least if your interested! It has some spectacular action sequences which make it worthwhile in my opinion to check out!