Ogawa no hotori

小川の辺

At the river's edge

Trailer

愛する人を斬ることなど、出来るのか。
It is possible to kill somebody you love?

Movie data

English Title: At the river's edge
Original title: 小川の辺 Ogawa no hotori
Published: 2011
Length: 104 Minuten

Staff
Director: Tetsuo Shinohara
Story: Shuhei Fujisawa Script: Yasuo Hasegawa, Kenzaburo Iida
Music: Satoshi Takebe
Sword fighting choreography: Masatsugu Takase

Cast
HIGASHIYAMA Noriyuki: Sakunosuke Inui
KIKUCHI Rinko: Tazu
KATSUJI Ryo: Shinzo
KATAOKA Ainosuke: Sakuma
ONO Machiko: Kiku

Plot

The samurai Sakonosuke from the Inui family receives an order from the chamberlain of his clan chief to kill his brother-in-law Sakuma Morie, who was sentenced to death for not being loyal to the clan.
Along with Shinzo, an adopted young son of the Inui family, Sakonosuke makes the long journey to the whereabouts of his sister Tazu and her husband Sakuma to carry out the order. The origin of the story is unrolled in calm shots and with few words. It shows the way of thinking of the samurai society, for which honor and duty are to be respected at all costs. A film worth seeing.
The film is based on two stories by Shuhei Fujisawa (*1927 †1997): "Unasakahan Taizen" and "Yarni no Ana". Fujisawa is known for several film adaptations of his works for television and cinema, such as Twilight Samurai (2002), The Hidden Blade (2004), Love and Honor - Bushi no ichibun (2006) and Hana no Ato (2010).