BUICHI SAITO

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril

Close readers of this site, if such a person exists, will likely have noticed a precipitous drop-off in my output this year. You also know why; I’m once again a new father, and my movie watching time is extremely limited at the moment. More than that, my movie contemplation time, and energy, are very low.

Because of that, even when the opportunity to watch arrises, I sometimes hesitate to take it. The issue is that I don’t just watch these films, I try to think about them as well. I want to turn them around in my head, to try to come up with some thoughts about them worth immortalizing here. That requires extra brain cycles that I don’t really have right now.

All of that is to say that I totally watched this, I really enjoyed it, and that’s about the extent to which it has lived in my head. That’s not entirely true, the imagery has been playing in the background. This is a beautifully shot thing, full of intentionally wonderful imagery. Also, some weirdly out of focus long shots that I’m surprised they kept in?

My main takeaway, which I already put in the Letterboxd summary, is that feudal Japan was not for me. Way, way, way too formalized in its roles. I would do very poorly trying to exist in such a ritualistic and rigid structure. Actually, I would probably do very well subverting that structure, right up until the moment I had my head chopped off because some other dude did something that was somewhat thoughtless, I guess. - Jun 27th, 2022