The Legend & Butterfly

With two neighbouring kingdom's set for war, their kings decide that the best way forward is for the son of one - "Oda" (Takuya Kimura) to marry the daughter of the other - "Nohime" (Haruka Ayase). Neither are very keen on this arrangement but patrimonial loyalty and all that... An early shoulder massage illustrates really early on that these two are not a marriage made in heaven. Indeed, she proves considerably more adept than him at just about everything and is also unafraid of speaking her mind in front of his nobles - and women, well that just wasn't done! What now ensues does have an element of predictability to it, but this period of 16th century Japanese history is fraught with intrigues, political machinations, duplicity and ambition - and over the next 2¾ hours we have a decently paced unravelling of a generation of dynastic ambitions and manoeuvring that looks good and holds the attention well. Ayase takes the acting plaudits - she delivers well; and the others contribute adequately as the story advances. For me, it was the focus on the internecine society of love and honour your lord whilst you figure out ways to stab him in the back that worked well here. Loads of CGI - well it is 2023, after all, but the costumier and armourer's arts are well represented and the combat scenes spare us the worst excesses of repetition. It's a long slot of your day to commit to on the television, and I wonder if it would look better on a cinema screen, but if it's a genre in which you've an interest, then this is well worth a watch.

What can I say?, this is a really good movie!, it has every element of a good story along with some kick butt samurai action and humor and romance, it is a story of fate, it is like the story of Arjuna who had to do what he had to do and be a warrior, it is a story of my best friend who became a special forces medic and who's choices I always questioned but he was he is a kind of hero in his own way and these heroes fall prey themselves to the violence their predilections put them in and who knows if there's any virtue in their actions, except of course their very intention in the first place however good it may be, this is a damn fine movie don't let anybody dissuade you from watching all 2 hours and 48 minutes of it, one of the best of its genre.

Wonderful soulful movie ,, The atmosphere of movie takes you to the ancient era of East and you feel you are in Ancient East era. It shows true love helps family last more more but husband/wife should put selfishness away. This movie reminds me Hollywood movie " Arthur" (2011- Russell Brand). The time of this movie is in Ancient East but movie says man and his wife should run family (Country ) together (Happy Wardroom happy Ship). Actresses/Actors show their feeling very good , Decoration of the Ancient East scene is wonderful. I love Oda Nobunaga and Nohime acting in movie , at the end of the movie I get sorry for them to not live together more more.

There have been a lot of films made about the mighty and brutal warrior Oda Nobunaga, but certainly not one like this, which seems to take its cue from some early legends about his wife Nohime, that she herself was a trained assassin.

The first thing to say is not to come to this film for real life history - the film makers have very much put action and romance and drama above any kind of historical verisimilitude. But the result is very watchable, mostly thanks to some great acting, especially from the two leads, although sometimes Kimura struggles with the widely differing sides of Oda portrayed in the film, from idiotic young man to vicious killer to romantic warrior leader. Jaruka Ayase is terrific as Nohime, the real power behind Odas throne.

The action and drama is often a little over the top, but is always watchable so long as you don't think too much about the likelihood of the plot. The ending will very much be love it or hate it, but I enjoyed it. Like a lot of modern Japanese productions, they seem very good at making a low budget go a long way - some of the settings are quite spectacular.

So overall, while not quite up to the standard of the best recent Japanese historical dramas, this is still very much worth your time.

The life, death and many events around the life of warlord Oda Nobunaga have been the source and inspiration of many movies. In The Legend and Butterfly, we get to see an heavily fictionnalized version of Oda defining years through a different lens, his relationship with Kicho/Nohime, his legal wife, of which not that much is known historically. This allows for a lot of flitting through actual events peperred with a mature love story (which is more of a "relation" between two very different characters than some sort of romance novel), fortunately not shaved down the throat of the audience.

Kimura Takuya professionaly portrays an Oda slowly but surely drifting from a countryside minor warlord to a ruthless borderline cruel master of the country, while Haruka Ayase has a very solid presence on screen as Kicho. A minor grip, the story spans over three decades but the main characters don't seem to age more than three minutes (whereas second roles do seem age a bit... go figure....). Also, there is -a lot- of Nanban (foreign at the time) music instruments being played at various time in the movie, to a point this becomes distracting.

Even if if perfectly works with only a little histoy knowledge, the movie may be appreciated more if one has a basic knowlegde of the events at the time, from the Okehazama battle to the burning of Enryaku temple. Nothing that a quick read from wikipedia can not solve.

Obviously a lot of money has gone into this , from the reconstitution of Azuchi castle to Portuguese ships, the gorgeous settings, etc. It shows, but there arent't many battles on screen so viewers should not expect an action movie.

Overall a surprisingly good flick.