Moeyo Ken

This adaptation of the historical novel by Ryotaro Shiba.navigates between, well, adapting the book, and (trying to) find its own footing in history.

A much more truthful take on the turmoil in mid XIXth century Japanese society and the events that led to Meiji Restoration than the more "general public"-friendly Last Samurai, Baragaki focuses on the eventful life of Hijikita Toshizo, the vice-commandant of the Shinsengumi, the elite shogunate militia in charge of the protection of Kyoto when the central shogunate power was crumbling.

Most of the characters in the movie are based on historical existing figures (and props to Harada for including the "real" last Samurai, Jules Brunet, maybe as a small nudge to Last Samurai). Like Harada's previous historical features Sekigahara and the Emperor in August, Baragaki is -packed- with references that casual viewers may find hard to pick. The movie does not pause, things move quite fast, the dumbing down is limited, the background and explanations about the balance of power at the time are left to a minimum (besides a few scenes that are very obvious exposition dialogues). The viewer feels thrown right in the 1860s. The spectacle, even without the references in mind, is enjoyable enough, with a couple well shot swordfights and battles here and there to keep the non-history buffs interested in a flick filled with political talks about the power balance between various factions, treason, and treachery.

The movie is not for everyone. Readers of the novel will find that some characters seem close to their descriptions in the book (Okita Soji, specifically, seemed to jump from the pages) and the numerous aficionados of the Shinsengumi will have a lot to discuss...

Unfortunately, Baragaki uses an exorbitant amount of dialogue as a crutch to tell it's story instead of giving it over to the visual medium to handle. Even with all that dialogue, the story is still almost incoherent at times and because of the dialogue the film is bloated to an almost 2 hour and 30 minute runtime. I think the first mistake the film made was trying to tell such an expansive story over the course of a single film and while I don't love when stories get stretched out over multiple films, I think that it would have been wise to take that approach with this story.

The film does succeed in being the epic that I think it was trying to be with tons of characters and grand battles, but it never feels like it emotionally pays off. The acting is fine, but nobody's performance stood out for me. I wasn't much of a fan of the editing choices, particularly in moments of just dialogue with not much else going on, which can occasionally feel jarring and disconnected. I think the idea was to make the more dialogue focused scenes, of which there are a lot, feel more lively and dynamic but it just didn't work for me.

I'm being particularly negative, but it's mostly because I'm disappointed. I really liked the story being told, just not the execution and ultimately this film just made me much more enticed to read the novel it is based on and not so much care about the movie itself.