Bakumatsu
aka: AMBITIOUS
Directed by Daisuke Ito
Cast: KINNOSUKE NAKAMURA, TOSHIRO MIFUNE, TATSUYA NAKADAI
“Bakumatsu,” which literally means the “end of the Shogunate rule,” or the “end of the Tokugawa Period,” is a truly moving and historic motion picture about the men who devoted their lives to bringing about governmental reform in Japan.
From the year 1603 until about 1700, the Tokugawa Shogunate was able to maintain a peaceful and orderly government by exercising strict law enforcement upon the people. Edo and Osaka flourished into great cities; the population also increased rapidly. Moreover, on the cultural side, popular arts such as the theatre, novel, and color prints began to flourish.
However, after the first one quarter of the 18th Century, economic disasters combined with numerous other causes led to the weakening of the Shogunal system, until finally on December 9, 1868, the declaration of the new Meiji government brought to an end the historic 250 years of rule under the Tokugawa family.
The groups involved in the overthrow of the Shogunate were the Satsuma and Choshu clans of western Japan which joined forces to put an end to the Tokugawa Shogunate and the power that it wielded.
This is the true story of SAKAMOTO RYOMA generally considered to be the originator of the "Bakumatsu" (Downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate) as ultimately orchestrated by the collaboration of the Choshu and Satsuma Clans against the Tokugawa Shogunate.
His dream was to allow the opening of Japan to the West in order to understand its technology, and then use that knowledge to defeat the West in future battles. Considered a criminal by his own clan, hunted as a revolutionary by the government, and hated by both supporters of the Shogun, and Loyalists as well.
His is a story shrouded in danger, and powerful in its historical significance.
REMASTERED
1970 - Color - Widescreen 120 Min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
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