Now what Disney+ premieres its ‘Game of Thrones’ with samurai and what is seen points to series of the year, Asian cinema sharpens a contemporary bet that has been dazzling critics and audiences for years. The epics set in feudal Japan, so cultivated by Akira Kurosawa and which he himself culminated with the international success of ‘Rashomon’ in 1950, are still in fashion. This shows it’Shogun‘, which according to our criticism It has all the ingredients to be the best of 2024. Among them, his cast, in which some actors from ‘The Legend of the Samurai (47 Ronin)’ coincide once more. The 2013 film, available in the Netflix catalog and so far Carl Erik Rinsch’s only feature film, featured Keanu Reeves in a kimono while fighting hard to regain lost honor and conquer his true love.
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Before his legal and personal problems led to the cancellation of the blockbuster ‘Conquest’ for Netflix in 2021, Carl Rinsch embarked on an ambitious film debut. For his jump, the former director of advertisements and advertising campaigns had a star name: Keanu Reeves. Although the protagonist of ‘Matrix‘ (Wachowski Sisters, 1999) hesitated at first to embark on the project, the result was an entire deployment of media with a value of 175 million dollars. Due to complex reshoots and a long post-production period, the budget had to be raised, being compensated by the good results on VOD, DVD and Blu-ray.
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The story is set in feudal Japan. There, the rescued Kai (Keanu Reeves) teams up with Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), the leader of the 47 Ronin to take revenge on the traitor who killed his lord and condemned them to banishment. This is the seventh film adaptation of the legend of the 47 ronin, following ‘Revenge of the Forty-Seven Samurai’ (Mizoguchi, 1941), ‘Chûshingura’ (Watanabe, 1958), ’47 Ronin’ (Inagaki, 1962), ‘Avenging Swords’ (Fukasaku, 1978), ’47 Ronin’ (Ichikawa, 1994) and ‘The Last Chusingura’ (Sugita, 2010). Of course, this has the distinction of being the first adaptation of Hollywood. Although Keanu Reeves plays a half-British character, the truth is that the actor has ancestry Chinese-Hawaiian on his grandmother and father’s side he is a mix of Chinese, Hawaiian and Portuguese.
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While all but two of the actors were Japanese and unknown to Western audiences, Hiroyuki Sanada is a very familiar face, largely due to his appearances in the series ‘Lost’ (2004), ‘Immortal Wolverine’ (2013) or ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ (2019). The Japanese performer is one of the additions to the cast of ‘Shogun‘, the new thing from Disney Plus, which also includes Tadanobu Asano, with whom he meets once more ten years later. It may have been a box office failure, but ‘The Legend of the Samurai’ points to a total resurrection thanks to its incorporation into the Netflix catalog. Plus, who wouldn’t like to see Keanu Reeves in his last appearance before becoming John Wick?
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Caught between music and cinema, from Vigo she came to Madrid to study Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the Carlos III University. Legend has it that she preferred to skip classes to go to a premiere although, if you ask her, she will deny it.
She came to the Fotogramas editorial office as an intern, following delving into music and film journalism, collaborating in media such as Milana magazine. She has interviewed personalities such as Jonás Trueba or Irene Escolar and her most valuable asset is a guitar pick. She lives in love with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Nora Ephron. If you can’t find her, she’ll be watching some Kurosawa movie. It doesn’t matter when you read this.
