What got me to watch this movie was because of Matsumoto Jun (MatsuJun). Watching this movie got me to see an acting side of Matsumoto I've never seen before. I was really surprised about his character in this movie. He was a hero in the end that deserves more than what he have. Even though it didn't ended how I expected, it was still good. I think there should have been more "action" and fighting between Matsumoto and the samurais.
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Pitch person 2: And let's get a love story in there too...Let's see if someone from Arashi will do it!
Pitch person 1: Yeah yeah! And then lets have explosions and the princess be like a guy but not.
Pitch person 1 Ohh and we have to make a gay joke in there....
Producer: Sounds GREAT! Let's do it!
Still love the original, glad I got to take this off my PTW. Hope MJ's fake beard in his Hokkaido special is better than the one here.
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Fun on its own, not as a remake
I watched the original Hidden Fortress a few weeks ago and had way too much fun with the comedy, characters, and plot. You can't beat Mifune Toshiro as Makabe Rokurota and Uehara Misa as Yukihime.I wasn't expecting much from the remake, I had a bad feeling when I saw Jun Matsumoto playing one of the peasants and clearly built up to be a love interest for Yukihime, but BOY was I disappointed with this one. They made so many baffling choices with the story and characters, but what annoyed me the most is how they ruined Makabe's character. Abe Hiroshi did his best to bring Mifune's character to life and I respect him a lot for that (same with Miyagawa Daisuke as the other peasant), but they basically turned him into your archetypical angry bodyguard with no charm or depth, as shallow as a puddle. Gyoe (Gyobu in this movie) was watered down into a boring one-dimensional villain and Takezo (Matsumoto Jun's character) turned into a completely different person by the second half of the film. There were too many unnecessary twists and turns that didn't make sense and ruined the message behind the story, but the final twist is probably the worst one.
The fight scenes were actually pretty fun though, the set design was great and the music by Naoki Sato is as good as always. It's a fun action-adventure flick you can check out when you're bored and don't know what to watch but as a remake? Please skip it.
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Jun Matsumoto was a good actor that's for sure, but I should have guessed that this would just end up on my bummer listing film. The killing effects were too obvious, even the gushing out of blood was exaggerated (not that japanese films do not exaggerate it as always, kill bill had that but still had a fantastic effect out of it) but here... in an era where blood bath should look more realistic, it didn't fit at all.
As for the soundtrack... for the love me, I could not recall it at all. It's not something that would stick in your head, it's all a hum and dumdimdumdums.
Acting wise the main characters were good. Only the setting wasn't and that you would know it was all a ruse. Other than that it was an OKAY film to watch, but not worth your time. I love Abe Hiroshi and Jun Matsumoto but they couldn't save this film with their good looks and acting.
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