Oh-Oku (Oh-oku, The Women of the Inner Palace). Director: Toru Hayashi (this is his first feature). Japan (2007) 128 min, Japanese with English subtitles.
Ok, I guess holding this up to Kurasowa’s Ran as a gold standard might be a bit harsh, but we both found this brilliantly coloured, but impossibly slow drama too soap opera-ish, and just too long. With two hours to play with, surely we could have had a bit more court intrigue? Set in the Tokugawa Ietsugu period (1709-1716 (one of many Tokugawa shoguns) in Edo, the Japanese city later renamed Tokyo), it’s the usual suspects of love, betrayal, jealousy, court machinations between rival groups jostling for control, running along in slow motion so you know it to be very authentic. No, actually, most Japanese films are two hours long – must be some sort of theatre programming thing. Anyway, a child shogun is advised by a former Noh actor in this version (taking some liberties with historical fact), placing his mother (a non-noble concubine) and mother’s protector in direct opposition to the late shogun’s widow and mother. I’d say mediocre TV fare – so sorry. Pretty pictures, though.
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