Samurai Assassination Movie

There's a movie coming out in Japan that really looks good. It's a movie about an assassination of the chief minister of the Edo shogunate government in 1860. Student's of Japanese history will know this as the "Sakuradamon incident." It was also the last hurrah for the samurai.

Authentic photo from 1860 of the Sakuradamon incident

The Sakuradamon incident occurred when Japan's pro-foreign Chief Minister Ii Naosuke was assassinated by xenophobic samurai who wanted foreigners kept out of Japan (an understandable concern!)


Now, there's a lot of bad movies coming out of Japan, but when it comes to samurai films, Japan still does a pretty good job (well, duh!) 


The Mainichi Newspaper reports: 

A famous ambush assassination of a high-ranking government official in Japan's late samurai period has been adapted into Junya Sato's new movie "Sakuradamongai no Hen" (The Sakuradamon Incident). The film carefully depicts the country's upheaval at the end of the samurai era from the view point of the assassins, making it easier for everyone to understand the historic background of the incident. The climax of the movie is the assassination of Naosuke Ii (starring Masato Ibu), the chief minister of the Edo shogunate government, by a group of 18 samurais on a snowy day 150 years ago.


Here's the trailer for the movie. It's in Japanese but you don't need to speak the language to see how good this movie is going to be!





Link: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101023p2a00m0na021000c.html


Thanks to News on Japan