‘Bushido’: A realistically stylish samurai throwback

“Bushido” is veteran director Kazuya Shiraishi’s first samurai period drama, but like his acclaimed 2018 cops-versus-yakuza action movie “The Blood of Wolves,” the film is a lovingly conceived and meticulously executed throwback that revitalizes the genre.

The earlier film was inspired by Kinji Fukasaku’s gritty 1970s “Battles Without Honor and Humanity” series that exposed the hollowness of the traditional gang code. “Bushido,” which is based on a famous rakugo (comic storytelling) tale, similarly recalls old-school samurai swashbucklers, complete with top-knotted heroes out for justice and revenge. It’s thus closer in theme to the films of a populist entertainer like Masahiro Makino (the “Jirocho” series) than a genre deconstructionist like Masaki Kobayashi, whose ronin protagonist in his 1962 masterpiece “Harakiri” is more viscerally desperate than conventionally noble. Even so, “Bushido” shares some of the scathing critique found in “Harakiri” of a feudal society rife with cruelty and corruption.

Starring former pop star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as Kakunoshin Yanagida, a ronin forced to leave his clan’s domain after a false accusation, the film begins as a deliberately paced, humor-inflected drama centering on go — an ancient board game with simple rules but endless strategic possibilities.

Living with his supportive adult daughter, Kinu (Kaya Kiyohara), in an Edo (pre-modern Tokyo) rowhouse, Kakunoshin scrapes out a living making seals. An expert go player, he is a paragon of samurai virtue on the go board, never stooping to tricks to win. Attracted by his unmatched skill and upright personality, a prosperous merchant and enthusiastic amateur player, Genbee Yorozuya (Jun Kunimura), offers to be his opponent and Kakunoshin accepts.

The film’s opening scenes may test the patience of the go-ignorant, baffled by moves on which observing connoisseurs knowingly comment. But the tempo quickens when, in the heat of a game with Kakunoshin, Genbee is handed a payment of 50 ryō (a form of gold currency) — a princely sum — which subsequently goes missing. Suspicion falls on the ronin, who was the only person in the room with the merchant. When Genbee’s appointed heir, the mealy-mouthed Yakichi (Taishi Nakagawa), asks him about the money, Kakunoshin goes ballistic, his samurai pride wounded to the quick.

To save her father from committing seppuku to redeem his honor, Kinu borrows 50 ryō from a sympathetic but strict brothel owner (Kyoko Koizumi), who tells her if she can’t repay the loan before the new year, she will have to service customers. Giving the money to a surprised Genbee, Kakunoshin sets off on a fateful journey.

From this point, the story, scripted by Masato Kato, diverges from its rakugo model, as Kakunoshin begins to search for his sworn enemy (Takumi Saitoh), a fellow clan samurai who accused him of stealing a valuable scroll and drove his wife to suicide. Inevitably, the swords come out.

Playing Kakunoshin, Kusanagi is at first all stiff probity, but when inflamed with righteous anger, his emotions boil over —and he becomes more humanly relatable. And when he swings into action, his fight scenes combine stylish brio with slashing realism.

Meanwhile, Shiraishi’s fluid camera moves add dynamism to static scenes while the naturalistic lighting of the nighttime interiors recalls the famed candlelit rooms of Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon.” The effect is evocative and haunting, even when a go game is in progress.

Rakugo was never like this.