"Gohatto", A Film To Remember

So, in my quest to find more foreign films, in particular Asian ones, I ran across an absolute gem. I was browsing Netflix and came across a film named "Gohatto", or "Taboo", it's English name. This movie totally blew me away!

The story is about a young recruit (Ryuhei Matsuda, pictured) in the samurai militia named Kano Sozaburo who turns the place upside down with his beautiful, feminine face. He immediately becomes the "object of desire" by quite a few of his fellow samurai, including officers and, a fellow recruit named Toshiro (Tadanobu Asana, in a heartbreaking role).

Kano is a beautiful, young (18 years old) boy with good looks, and a mysterious manner. He loves being the center of attention and although he is beautiful, underneath lies a master manipulator and vicious killer.

He is given the assignment to execute a fellow samurai and carries it out with cool efficiency, prompting one of his superiors to comment to himself, "He must have killed before". Kano is a rich man's son and like today, rich sons and daughters are not likely to join the military. We all know only the poor go off to die and protect their country. So, when Captain Yamazaki asks him why a rich man's son joins the militia, his answer is chilling: "To have the right to kill". Oh, ok.

One of the men who desires him, a rather unattractive captain, finally seduces him at his home over sake and conversation. He gives in without much protest and later in the film, we see him laying passively as he is sodomized by the same captain, who eventually ends up murdered.

Meanwhile, Toshiro, who seems to genuinely care for him, is rebuffed time and again by Kano, playing his cruel game. Eventually, Kano is asked to murder Toshiro, who is suspected of killing one officer and attacking another under the cloak of darkness where his dagger is left, but not by him. The ending to this movie is chilling and to say much more will give it away but you must listen carefully to the end to find out what happens to Kano.

I was surprised to find out, after doing some background reading about this period and the Shogunate, that the super-masculine samurai had regular homosexual liasions. Don't know why I was so surprised, really. I suppose I had this image of these fearless warriors with sharp swords and steel nerves and NO, as they called it in the movie, "leanings" toward that! There really is nothing new under the sun, is there?

I'd recommend this movie unless you have a fear of watching any homoerotic scenes. The flick is so much more than that, though. It's beautifully acted, filmed and intriguing. I loved it so much I ordered it from Movies Unlimited the very next day for my personal film collection. Rent it. You won't be sorry.