Da'ud Bob's Movie Review
for
  April 2025


This month I ran across this old review while looking for something else. Hah! Serendipity for the win. Frankly, the previous weekend (as I write this) I had invited a bunch of friends over to watch movies all day, withh the theme: "Who Did It Best?". So we watch Cyrano all day: the 1990 Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu (in French with subtitles), the 2021 Cyrano with Peter Dinklage, and the 1987 Roxanne with Steve Martin. So when I was reminded of this review of yet another version of this story, I felt I "had to" make it the movie review for this month. And the fact that the movie includes the line, "April. Nothing of importance occurred" was just the icing on the cake for the April Da'ud Bob review. Enjoy!



It’s just wonderful what you can find if you’re willing to stay up late at night or get up early in the morning weekends and surf the cable channels on your TV.  I mean, yeah, there’s a lot of junk out there, mindless pap for the teeming millions, but there are also gems which can be found there, like flecks of gold in a miner’s pan.  You just have to be willing to do the work to find them.  Or, you can let your faithful reviewer do the work of finding them, and then go look them up yourself having already been given all the necessary information to track them down at your local video store or on-line at Amazon.com.  And, as luck would have it, this month’s review is of just such one of those gems.  Scrolling through the offerings on cable on a recent Saturday morning, we ran across a title that sounded interesting.  The real clincher was the synopsis, which pretty much gave away the entire show.  I said, “I know that plot!”  It’s been done before.  But I hadn’t seen this particular version.  You’ll probably recognize it, too.  The synopsis was this single short sentence: “Toshiro Mifune is superb as a lovesick poet-warrior with an oversized nose.”  Yup, Cyrano de Bergerac meets Shogun.  And  so it is, that this month, Da’ud Bob reviews for you the movie filmed and known in Japan as Aru kengo no shogai (literally, “Life of an Expert Swordsman”), released with subtitles in the U.S. as Samurai Saga.

Starring the ever impressive Toshiro Mifune as Master Heihachiro Komaki, the poet-warrior with the patched clothes and oversized nose, Yoko Tsukasa as Princess Chiyo (the Lady Ochii to her friends), Akira Takarada as Jurota Karibe (the good-looking guy Ochii first falls for), Keiko Awaji as the little nun Nanae, Seizaburo Kawazu as Nagashima, Kamatari Fujiwara as Rakuzo the sake seller, Akihiko Hirata as Akaboshi, and Eiko Miyoshi as Okuni, the plot of this film should be familiar to all of you already.  Indeed, there have been a number of versions over the years, including the 1950 classic with José Ferrer in the title role, the best (1990) version in French with Gerard Depardieu, the interesting one (2021) with Peter Dinklage, and the one with the feel-good ending with Steve Martin entitled Roxanne.  Instead of being set in Paris, France, the action here takes place in Kyoto, in the years between 1599 and 1612, but all of the most memorable scenes are taken directly from the original play by Edmond Rostand: closing the play, fighting off 25 attackers, dying in the arms of his love right after she learns it was he, and his words, that she was in love with.  And Cyrano, pardon me, Komaki, explaining to a critic all of the various ways that he could have insulted his nose remains a classic.

Good points: It is Rostand’s story, sometimes all the way down to his (translated into Japanese) words.  It is Rostand’s story set pretty much seamlessly into feudal Japan, when the Tokugawa shogunate was consolidating his power, including placing Master Komaki on the losing side of the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.

Bad points: It is Rostand’s ending (which is why, of all the movie versions there are of the play, I prefer Roxanne).

Zero breasts.  ½ gallon of blood.  67 dead bodies.  Katana fu.  Musket fu.  Poetry fu.  Spear fu.  Stone fu.  Samurai roll.  River rolls.  Gratuitous dancing girls.  Gratuitous flashbacks.  Gratuitous crazy girl.  Gratuitous cherry blossoms.  Academy Award nomination to Toshiro Mifune as Master Heihachiro Komaki for “April: Nothing of importance occurred” and “My undaunted spirit” (to match Depardieu’s “Ma panache”).  A 51 on the Vomit Meter.  2½ stars.  Da’ud Bob says, “Check it out!”





Upcoming movies and miniseries to watch for!


A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight
2025		 A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros... a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends. A(nother) Game of Thrones prequel. Streaming on Max.
Highlander
2026		 Starring Henry Cavill. This is a remake of the 1986 original starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery that no one I know of is asking for. "An immortal Scottish swordsman faces off with other immortal warriors in order to obtain a coveted ability." Director Chad Stahelski confirmed the movie will be using Queen's soundtrack from the original but "Probably in a different way than you think, but hardcore yes." [Da'ud Bob says, "How about no?"]
The Odyssey
July 17, 2026		 A new film version of the epic poem by Homer. Directed by Christopher Nolan, and starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, with Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, John Leguizamo, and more.


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