Nobunaga Oda was a feared and powerful feudal lord who aimed to conquer all of Japan under his iron hand. He was known for his brilliant tactics and his brutal methods. His reign came to an end in 1582, when one of his retainers, Mitsuhide Akechi, staged a coup against him and laid siege to the temple at Honnouji, where Nobunaga was staying, eventually leading to his\s forced suicide. This event came to be known as the Honnouji Incident.
Honnouji Hotel uses the Honnouji Incident as a backdrop for, of all things, a woman's self realization. For some magical reason, Mayuko (Haruka Ayase) finds herself travelling through time back to the eve of the Honnouji Incident. Mayuko's an unfortunate victim of a corporate bankruptcy; now jobless and with no prospects in sight, she sees marriage with her boyfriend as her last recourse, but she is having second thoughts. The film uses Nobunaga's struggle to unify Japan and uses that as a backdrop to help Mayuko get her groove back.
However, the argument for Mayuko is not well formed; the attempts to connect Nobunaga's plight to Mayuko are a bit strained. There is also Mayuko herself; perhaps to help the viewer know more about Honnouji and Nobunaga, Mayuko's character is a bit naive, displaying what the Japanese call kuuki yomenai, an inability to perceive social cues - in this case the samurai decorum of 1500s Japan. I would probably have enjoyed the movie a bit more had Mayuko been less naive.
The film may have its share of faults, but ultimately it is quirky enough to make it work. The central tenet of Mayuko's eventual realization is basically 'be free to do what you want, and be happy with the journey and not the destination.' I'm not sure we needed it to be told through the perspective of a legendary warlord, but it's okay for what it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment