Storyline In 1868, after the end of the Bakumatsu war, the former assassin Kenshin Himura promises to defend those who need without killing and wanders through Japan with a sword with inverted blade during the transition of the samurai age to the New Age. When Kenshin helps the idealistic Kaoru Kamiya from the gangsters of the powerful opium drug lord Kanryuu Takeda that wants her school for his production of opium, Kaoru invites Kenshin to stay in the school. But the drug chemist Megumi Takani escapes from Kanryuu and seeks shelter in the school. Meanwhile the killer Battosai is murdering police officers and leaving messages attached to their bodies. When the cruel Kanryuu poisons the population to get the school, and Kenshin and the …show more content…
At this point it is revealed that, during the Bakumatsu, Kenshin had been married to a woman called Yukishiro Tomoe. She had initially wanted to avenge the death of her fiancé whom Kenshin had killed, but instead both fell in love and got married. It is then discovered that Tomoe was part of a group of assassins that wanted to kill Kenshin, and Tomoe is betrayed by them and captured to use as bait. Kenshin rushes in to rescue her, killing both his assailant and accidentally Tomoe, who jumps in at the last minute to save Kenshin from a fatal attack. Wanting to take revenge for the death of his sister, Enishi kidnaps Kaoru and leaves behind a tortured figure bearing a stunning resemblance of Kaoru for Kenshin to find and momentarily grieve over. Once discovering that Kaoru is alive, Kenshin and his friends set out to rescue her. A battle between Kenshin and Enishi follows and when Kenshin wins, he and Kaoru return home. Five years later, Kenshin has married Kaoru and has a son named Himura
The narrator, Katsu Kokichi, was a low ranking samurai during the end of the Tokugawa Period. He was the youngest out of all his siblings and as a child he ran away from home multiple times. Kokichi told his readers how he had to beg for food and even began to pose as a representative to a feudal lord. The readers learn that he has a wife and children but he often times would beat her and he also never got an official promotion and was forced to obtain a low income by dealing swords, selling protection to shopkeepers, and sometimes using his muscle (getting into fights) and tricking others. In Kokichi’s lifetime, readers see a man whose life was filled with dishonesty, corruption, poverty, blackmail, and even lawbreaking. His story shows the reality of a samurai’s life during the end of the Tokugawa
The Samurai’s Tale is about a young boy named Taro, who had became the hero of the story. The main characters in the story was Lord Akiyama, Lord Takeda Shingen, and Togan. This story took place in Japan around the 16th century. The story began with Taro, Murakami Harutomo, arguing with his mother about what she had been telling him to wear for an event that was going to happen without him knowing about. Later that day Taro saw that soldiers came attacking his house, his mother leaving him with Yone in a chest trying to keep them safe in a storehouse that had laid behind the house. A soldier then found them both and took them out of the chest, then as they walked out of the store hold, he found his mother on the ground dead. A plot twist that
Musui 's Story is a samurai 's autobiography that portrays the Tokugawa society as it was lived during Katsu Kokichi 's life (1802 - 1850). Katsu Kokichi (or Musui) was a man born into a family with hereditary privilege of audience with the shogun, yet he lived a life unworthy of a samurai 's way, running protection racket, cheating, stealing, and lying. Before we discuss how Musui 's lifestyle was against the codes that regulated the behavior of the samurai, it is essential that the role of the samurai in Japanese society be understood.
Katsu Kokichi’s autobiography, “Musui’s Story,” documents the life of a samurai in Japan’s late Tokugawa period who adopted the name Musui in his retirement. Katsu is something of a black sheep within his family, being largely uneducated and deemed unfit for the bureaucratic office 's samurai of his standing were expected to hold. As such, he typifies in many ways the lower ronin, or masterless samurai, many of whom famously led roaming, directionless lives and wreaked havoc among the urban poor and merchant classes. The novel addresses the decaying power of samurai throughout the Tokugawa period and depicts their struggle to find purpose. Throughout the story, Katsu is impacted by three interconnected systems of power that impact his life
The small samurai began practicing the basics of fencing with wooden swords at the age of 3, being given a real weapon, a mamorigatana sword for self-defence, between the ages of 5 and 7. A child was required to be able to protect itself from surrounding dangers, family enemies, robbers and vagrants, with his father and male relatives providing early combat training. The boys were sent to be raised by relatives or to the home of a fencing instructor, where they were taught military skills, archery, riding, handling a spear and unarmed combat, jujutsu, i.e. yawara. Attention also contributed to the development of intellectual virtues. There wasn’t a special school for Samurai daughters, who learned how to be good wives and housekeepers from their mothers. These young women also had to learn how to write Japanese syllabic symbols and read classic Japanese literature and poetry, while also receiving weapons training, e.g., in using the naginata spear. The knight’s childhood started with them becoming a Page.The Medieval Page of the Middle Ages was little more than a child. But his training commenced from the age of seven. The duties of a knight were seen as the combat duties and those duties were similar to serving the lords and ladies. The Knighthood training began in earnest as a Page when all their games and sports were geared towards learning skills related to horsemanship, the two-handed sword, battle axe,
of the samurai class. He left his homeland and became a noncitizen in the United States. After
I am Sam is a 2001 American drama film written and directed by Jessie Nelson, starring Sean Penn as Sam who has an intellectual disability that had sole care for his daughter Lucy Diamond played by Dakota Fanning. The two of them encounter problems with the Department of Child and Family Services as they believe the presence of Sam’s intellectual disability negates his ability to parent. A lawyer Rita Harrison played by Michelle Pfeiffer plays an important role in this film as she is the only one to have belief in Sam’s ability to parent. This M rated film has won awards such as the Stanley Kramer award for their ability to place an emphasis on social concerns. People with disabilities are often discriminated against the rest of society as a result of their impairments. Jessie Nelson’s use of mis-en-scene and semiotic elements engage the members of the audience to position them to have their own perspective of Sam’s situation as presented.
The film Rudy is a motivational film about a young man who has a desire deep inside him of attending and playing football for the Fighting Irish at the University of Notre Dame. The son of an oil refinery worker and one of fourteen children Daniel Rudy Ruettiger had to overcome discouragement and anguish to reach the peak of success. It took many years of fierce determination to overcome obstacles and criticism yet Rudy never gave in. As fans chanted “Rudy” he sacked the quarterback in the last 27 seconds of the only play and the only game of his college football career. He is the only player in the schools' history to be carried off the field on his teammates' shoulders.
Comedy is also relatively short compared to other genre of movies. These two genres found to be the most popular movie genres than the other categories.
In the film Toni Erdmann by the German director Maren Ade, there are many interesting techniques which help the viewer gain a better understanding of what’s going on. In using these techniques, Ade is attempting to display something to the viewer that they may not have otherwise caught or understood, such as facial reactions which contain useful information as to what is happening in a given scene. In addition to this, Ade brings back and somewhat recreates the genre known as the screwball comedy, which was very popular in the 1940’s. In Toni Erdmann, Ade alters the genre a bit from what it originally was to recreate a new, updated and modern version of the genre. In watching the film during Harpur Cinema, I was more naturally able to notice different film techniques and the updated genre due to our discussions regarding the topics in class.
Yuzan Daidoji, Oscar Ratti, and Thomas Cleary. The Code of the Samurai. Boston: Tuttle, 1999. 10-44.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2008 motion picture Tokyo Sonata puts across an account involving a Japanese family as it needs to go through a series of problems that put their determination to test. Each of the four characters in the Sasaki family has trouble understanding what he or she wants from life and as he or she comes to learn and accept what his or her family has to say about his or her personality. Kurosawa most probably wanted to provide viewers with a rather common story occurring in an environment dominated by globalization a place where values change at a rapid pace and where people can or cannot find their personal identity.
The movie Gran Torino, is an American film directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars as the main character. The movie was set in Highland Park, Michigan which was a nearby suburb of Detroit. In prior years, Highland Park was populated by white families that had come to the area to work in the Ford car factories, but over time, “the damn chinks” moved into the neighborhood as Walt Kowalski would say. This show was the first American film to show Hmong Americans, which were war refugees that had resettled in the U.S. following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975 (Yuen). The main character, Clint Eastwood is a widowed Korean War veteran who often shows bursts of racism and anger towards people of different race, especially the Asian immigrants in his neighborhood. His neighbor, Thao Vang Lor, a young Hmong teenager becomes a key character in the movie after he gets pressured into stealing Walt’s 1972 Gran Torino in an attempt to be initiated into a Hmong gang in which his cousin is involved with. While attempting to steal the car, Walt catches Thao and is sure to prove a point that he is not going to take any slack from him and or the Hmong gang members.
An animated Disney movie called "Mulan," was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook in 1998. The moral of the story is that women can be just the same as men can. I support the general meaning of the movie. I believe men that and women should be treated equally and that women should not be seen as weak or frail. Women are more than just wives or slaves and can-do jobs that have traditionally been set-aside for men. They can be successful and bring honor to their families in other ways.
A sociological thought piece, Chris McKinney’s The Tattoo is bursting with toxic relationships. Amongst these, McKinney uses the strained kinship between Ken Hideyoshi and his father to partially explain how people fall into cycles of violent behaviour. To understand the richness of the text, violence will be characterised as the intentional or unintentional application of force, and/or power resulting in psychological, emotional and/or physical harm, whether it is for the perpetrator’s advantage or not. Thus, a wide definition is given to encompass the numerous acts of harm occurring throughout the novel. Ken’s father is a man instilled with traditional values and beliefs. Therefore, strength and fearlessness are expected to be in Ken to make him tough and prepared to face the world. The reader witnesses these notions take root and unfurl into his father’s ideas of the epitome of hegemonic masculinity. Consequently, this essay will analyse the connection between Ken Hideyoshi and his father as it progresses throughout the novel by looking at how socialisation, hegemonic masculinity and family violence lead impressionable people into deviant lifestyles.