Love and Honor

Wow.  Of the three movies, this was my favorite.  Yeah, the fact that Takuya Kimura is in it does help; but not by much.  It wasn't exactly the same as the first two movies. There were similarities but the first two were more alike than the third one was to either of them. The more dramas and movies I watch with Takuya in them, the more I can see he's almost as good as Hiroshi Abe.

In "Love and Honor", Takuya is a low level (30 koku) samurai named Shinnojo Mimura.  He's married to Kayo, his loyal and faithful wife.  Shinnojo works as a food sampler for his lordship.  He and about 4 other samurai have the risky task of tasting the lord's food for poison before it is served to the lord.  Takuya has grown tired of his job and he tells Kayo he wants to quit his job at the castle and open a dojo and teach sword fighting to children of all castes.  

One day at work, the samurais taste some Red Tsubugai shellfish.  For about a minute of two, everyone appears to be fine so the cooks are told to go ahead and serve the lord.  While the food is being taken and served to the lord, the samurais start to get up.  Shinnojo begins to cough and gag and eventually keels over.  The servants on their way to the lord are told to not serve the food because it has been poisoned.  The lord is spared but Shinnojo falls ill.  An internal investigation reveals that the Red Tsubaugai was not poisoned; it had turned toxic because it was out of season.

Shinnojo lay sick for a few days before he woke up and quickly realized that he could not see.  The doctor told him to keep taking the medicine he had prescribed and that things would get better.  On his way out, the doctor tells Kayo he will never see again.  Kayo decides to keep this info to herself.

While Kayo is out, Shinnojo asks his servant for the truth about his eyes and the servant tells him everything.  When Kayo comes back, they argue.  If he is to be blind for the rest of his life, how is he supposed to provide for himself and his wife?  A blind samurai?  He's convinced that he will lose his status.

The rest of the family, including Kayo, get together to figure out how they can help Shinnojo.  Suggestions are made but all are shot down.  Then Uncle says he no longer has any high ranking friends at the castle and asks if anyone knows someone who is high ranked and can help them out.  Kayo tells Uncle she knows a high ranking samurai and that he had offered to help if she asked.  Uncle tells Kayo to go and ask him to use his influence to get the lord to help.  Kayo agrees to ask.

Uncle shows up one day to tel Shinnojo that the lord has decided to let him keep his 30 koku status and that because of his service, he is to be taken care of for life.  This is most welcome news for Shinnojo as a weight is lifted off his shoulders.  Then along comes his Auntie...a woman Shinnojo does not like very much because she talks too much and loves to gossip.  She arrives under the pretense of stopping by to see how Shinnojo is.  But she is there to inform him of something her husband had mentioned to her.  It seems her husband saw Kayo at a teahouse with a man that was not her husband.  Enraged, Shinnojo disregards respect for his elders and tells his Aunt exactly what he thinks of her and asks her to leave. 

Shinnojo asks his servant to follow Kayo and the servant does as he is told.  At first he sees nothing suspicious until he sees her walk into a teahouse.  Back at home Kayo starts to talk about what the servant saw.  The servant stops her and tells her he saw nothing and that he intends to tell the master just that; but Kayo tells the servant she will tell Shinnojo everything.

Kayo confesses to Shinnojo that she went to ask the high ranked samurai for help.  She tells him she's known him since she was a little girl and that he had asked about Shinnojo after hearing of his misfortune.  He offered her his help if she ever needed it.  She told Shinnojo that it was Uncle's idea for her to go see him.  She tells him that the samurai was understanding and told her he would do everything in his power to help.  His help however, was not free and he forced himself on Kayo.  He threatened Kayo that he would tell Shinnojo if she did not give herself to him again so he takes her again.  And then again with the same threat.  Shinnojo becomes livid when he realizes that the lord's "kindness" was because the high ranked samurai intervened on his behalf after having been with his wife.  He tells her she's not the Kayo he knows and then he calls the servant and tells him he's divoreced Kayo and tells him to help her get her things and send her away.  The servant tries to reason with Shinnojo but he won't hear it.  Kayo takes a few things and, in the rain, she goes away.

Later, he finds out that though the high ranked samurai had offered to go to the lord for Shinnojo, he never really did and that the lord's decision to help Shinnojo for life was his own.  The lord realized if Shinnojo had not fallen ill, then he may have been the one to have gotten sick or he could have died.  Learning this, Shinnojo realizes that the samurai deceived Kayo and he decides to avenge Kayo's honor.

Shinnojo sends the servant to the samurai's home with a message to meet with him and not to underestimate him because he is blind.  

I'll only say now that Shinnojo and the samurai meet for a sword fight.  Shinnojo is prepared to die for his family's honor...how will he do as a blind samurai fighting perhaps the best fighting samurai he knows?

I wasn't planning on writing a summary for this movie; but I couldn't help myself once I started.  I was only going to say a few words about it and well...I got carried away.  I also wasn't planning on putting any screenshots in here but...I'll make an exception this time because they're both of Takuya...he's so amazingly hot.  Well, not so much as a samurai but in the dramas.