How dumb do you have to be to watch a Shakespeare film and then complain, like certain reviews here, that it has Shakespeare's dialogue? What did you expect? Apart from anything else, the dialogue - the poetry of the greatest-ever writer of English - is the whole point. Without that, you have only a highly improbable story made up of contrived situations connected together only tenuously. With it - if it is well performed - a golden, magical glow of love and wit. If you don't understand it, rather than expecting it to be dumbed down to your level you should be prepared to put a bit of work in, read the play over slowly and puzzle it out - or else just admit that it is over your head. But don't blame the play for your own deficiencies.
I'm not fond, though, of the modern fashion for productions with apparently random, irrelevant concepts - in this case old-time Japan - to which Branners adds by his insistence on casting American stars who (inevitably) can't really handle the dialogue.
I'm not fond, though, of the modern fashion for productions with apparently random, irrelevant concepts - in this case old-time Japan - to which Branners adds by his insistence on casting American stars who (inevitably) can't really handle the dialogue.