Thanks for the memories!

Simply A Masterpiece

Best movie ever!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is primarily a film for hardcore Samurai film buffs. But that's it. About a half hour into the movie you sort of just realize that NOTHING IS HAPPENING. They build up to battles and NOTHING HAPPENS. Nami dies but they don't tell you why because NOTHING HAPPENS. The battle scenes are oversold by the write ups I've seen. The sword play is lacking in skill and excitement and the battles are just skirmishes. When the big battle finally happens, it is handled clumsily and slow. Takeda sends in reinforcements and they turn out to be a bunch of chicks beating a huge drum, on a platform carried by unarmed dudes who march past some riflemen who gun them down. Some attack! This film is NOT Braveheart or Last Samurai. If you want to see Samurai fighting watch "The Seven Samurai" or "Throne of Blood" or "Ran". Disappointing for all but the most eager Samurai fans. 3 out of 10.

The Samurai are great material for films, and some of the finest films ever made have been Samurai films (I'm thinking Kurosawa rather than Tom Cruise). But some Samurai films, I have found, are *really* boring. Heaven and Earth is one of the boring ones. Although the production values are high and the battle scenes with thousands of extras are very impressive, the film completely fails to provide an interesting story. It's like reading a very academic history text, completely void of character or drama. The story is told very drily and none of the characters are remotely interesting. Some of this may be due to cultural differences between Japan and the West, since Japanese society does not traditionally encourage individuality. Indeed, it's said that Kurosawa's films with their very strong characterisation were rejected by Japanese audiences at first because they were "too Western" - perhaps this is what they meant. Ironically, Japanese cinema *does* produce some of the most individualistic cinema in the world (Takashi Miike, I'm looking at you now), but Heaven And Earth is as far from Miike as it is from Kurosawa.By the mid point in the film I'd almost totally stopped paying attention to the story, as it hadn't engaged my interest in the slightest. I really didn't care who was fighting or why, and sadly this meant that the technically amazing battle scenes were robbed of the emotional weight they could have had, which rendered them far less enjoyable than a 1 on 1 fight in a Jackie Chan film, for instance. All in all, I'd say the time and money that must have gone into the film was rather wasted.I'm sure it would have been a lot more impressive on the cinema screen or a decent DVD though - the lousy VHS dupe I saw really didn't do the visuals justice.

The movie Heaven and Earth is quite a dramatic one. From it's beginning we can feel the atmosphere of medievil Japan. First I thought it would be boring but then I realised that I wasn't right. First I was shocked with the scene where Yae challenged any of Ochigo warrior to fight her and she was shot by Kagetoro, then thrilled and dissapointed with her death in the final battle. I have seen many movies but Heaven and Earth is really the best. Naomi Zaizen's play was brilliant.

This film is like a poor man's Ran but what it lacks in Ran, it is made up with amazing battle sequences. Its basically battle upon battle and it would make for a brilliant DVD. If you ever wanted to see tactical battles about honour and betrayal then this is the movie for you!