The best of the genre I have seen.

From the narrative by Saitō Hajime we get to know the story of Yoshimura Kanichiro a Shinsengumi samurai. Yoshimura is a goody two shoes with a family to support and Saitō hated him for it. Saitō actually, deep down, admired Yoshimura who even on a few occasions shared the last rice cake with others but went hungry himself. That's what kind of man Yoshimura was. Yoshimura gets caught between the loyalty to his samurai oath towards his clan and his family.Great acting! Great story! See it!

One of the best movies of this particular genre that I have seen. Very moving and well worth the watch.

If you have never had the patience to sit through a movie with subtitles this one is worth cutting your first teeth on.
If you give this a chance, it will prove itself a gem of artistic creation. It is truly a rare thing, and most movies made today lack such depth of development.
Bravo (I give it full star count and standing ovation) Oh, and a very respectful bow.

it's been a long time since I've seen a movie where the actors conveyed the emotions of the characters so well. When Saito said he hated Yoshimura, his facial expression throughout the entire pic is of someone battling w/trying to even remotely like him even though you could tell he greatly admired him in the end. Anyhow, I enjoyed watching Saito's character being broken down....very uplifiting. Yoshimura's character made me laugh. I love that scene where he quite calmly blackmailed Saito....way cool. I wish Yoshimura's friend had let him go back to Nanbu, Yoshimura is the first Japanese character of this genre that I've seen who didn't want to die a samurai, but wanted to live and fought to do so. So while I agree that this is a good story, I want to know why for the love of God, are there so many suicides in this country? Every disappointment is a bleeding suicide, it's enough to get one depressed.
Nevertheless, it was enjoyable to the end.

Fantastic movie (if you like old Japanese Samurai movies)