Love And Honor – The 3rd Installment of Yoji Yamada’s Samurai Trilogy

I shed half a tear at the ending scene, which is rare as I have an enormous resistance to tear jerking moments in movies – and “Love And Honor” is not even a sappy love story. See for yourself if this is some sort of coincidence. Cynthia is not in town so what should my good friend Tong Kiat and I do? Eat durian and watch a Japanese movie! Without even planning for this (I had no idea that the only Japanese movie showing in Singapore at the moment is this one) or even before, every time a Yoji Yamada’s samurai movie is released, I have always ended up watching it with Tong Kiat while Cynthia has an overseas business trip in all three counts. Tsk, tsk, tsk … little things in life that tickles.

When I first told Tong Kiat that Cynthia would be out-of-town, both of us arrived at the same single word … Durian! And when thinking of durians, the word “Geylang” suddenly lights up in my head. Now, seasoned readers of this site certainly remember the last trip to Geylang (erm … the red light district of Singapore) with my friend Tong Kiat (see previous blog and you’ve been warned!). This time, Tong Kiat suggested taking me to another place for durians … one of the last few Opposition Strongholds in Singapore. Over dinner, it was hard for me not to crack some silly jokes on Singapore politics that I am used to. What is a joke to me may not be that funny as we were surrounded by majorities (and minorities in a national scale of course) who do not vote for the government. Overall, the food was good, parking was horrible (and I nearly joked that had the people in this region love the ruling party more, a multi-storey car park should be on its way), durian was so-so. Hey Tong Kiat, let’s go back to Geylang next time for durians!

Since “Love And Honor” is showing exclusively at Golden Village, we have no choice but to watch it at VivoCity. I personally enjoy watching movies at Cathay cinemas. Who in the right mind would want to pay more for a movie and to be forced to watch 15 minutes of advertisements before the show? Movies at Cathay cinemas always start on time with no or very little advertisements. The booking fee at Cathay is half of GV some more.

Parking at VivoCity was horrible. To avoid jamming up the entire street outside VivoCity – the biggest mall in Singapore – that certainly inconveniences the traffic going into Sentosa, the island resort, the car park attendants kept letting cars in even though the car park was full. Nearly all the slots that can be illegally parked were taken out. Being the law abiding citizen, I spent 45 mins inside the car park looking for a space. My friend Tong Kiat has decided to go the illegal way. In this case, being law abiding did not pay off.

Now, why am I talking so much on food and shopping mall without going directly into business – a movie review? I hesitated in revealing the plot of “Love And Honor”. When Tong Kiat asked me over dinner on what the plot was about, I simply said: bring some tissue papers. Simply put, it is a movie about samurai and it is a movie about love and honor. The duel scene got me intensely excited (I was more like … oh no, oh no, don’t let that happen!), the honor scenes made my blood boiling, and the love scenes made me shed half a tear. I am not sure if you have heard of the other two installments: Twilight Samurai (2002) and The Hidden Blade (2004). “Twilight Samurai” is a classic. Both Tong Kiat and I had no difficulties in remembering what it was about. We did have difficulties in remembering what the 2nd installment was about. Tong Kiat remember the title while I remember the fighting of the clans. I have to say, “Love And Honor” is my personal favorite amongst the trilogy. It is movies like these that let us the foreigners to have a quick look at what the culture and tradition was like during the old days of Japan. These little details can be fascinating to the curious minds.