It is a great movie, but there are many mysteries to the actions of the central character. I liked the movie so much that I just had to try to solve them. So I read the novel. The movie was based on Nakazato Kaizan's most important work, a voluminous novel of 28 known "books" and 5.6 million characters. It was serialized in Japan's newspapers for over 30 years starting in 1913, but was never completed. I was able to read the only English translation of the book called: "Nakazato (Kaizan). Daibosatsu Tôge, Great Bodhisattwa Pass, Translated by C.S. Bavier. Tôkyô, Shunjû Sha, 1929." It is a difficult book to find. I found a copy at a university with restricted access to this material. The translation fully covers the first three books and provides summaries of the other books. I hope that someday some expert completes the full translation of the work. It would be well worth it. Fortunately the movie is based on only the translated books. Reading was a bit of a challenge because the author skips from scene to scene abruptly. Then new facts about earlier episodes are suddenly presented later in the text. So I never felt confident of what was going on until reading the entire text. Ryunsoke is the central character but there are many other characters in the book not in the movie.
*****************************Spoilers for now on******************* I wanted to answer the following questions: What was the major idea behind the book and movie? Did the author intend to present Ryunsoke as a hero, villain, an evil sociopath, a fallen angel, or what? Was the movie faithful to the book? Why does Ryunsoke kill the old man at the pass? Does he ever fight Hyoma, the brother of Bunojo, the man he killed in a duel? Does he ever fight Shimada, the great swordsman? Was he trying to avoid them? What was his relationship with Hama, his "wife"? What happens to him at the end? 1. What is the idea of the movie and the novel? Did the book author Nakazato intend to present Ryunsoke as a hero, villain, an evil sociopath, a fallen angel, or what? Here are some key excerpts from the preface to the English edition by the author (October 1929) who wrote: "Toge, or pass, therefore stands to mean "turning point".
it serves as a symbol of this novel." "The times employed are the middle of the last century when Japan was undergoing rather rapid change from Old to New.." "The most conspicuous figure of the story Ryunsoke Tsukue, a born swordsman, devilish in nature, and yet is in full possession of man's weaknesses, is not necessarily the hero
" "The phenomena of man's world seen through the characters above, are all due to the accumulated demerit since the beginning of this world; good is not always evil; evil not necessarily evil. The novel pictures the progress of man, with his manifold sins, to the unique salvation of Buddha through Bodhisattva." Kaizsan Nakazato October 1929 In other words, the books and the movie are about a coming change in Japanese society and it is mainly seen through the change in the main character. Ryunsoke is a man born and bred in the Samurai tradition. His values and mores are taken from that culture. This culture values self-pride, defending one's honor, showing no fear, great skill in swordsmanship, and is prone violence. Ryunsoke follows this code fanatically. He has never been taught any other way of life thus his early actions in the book and movie appear proper to him. He sincerely tries to act according to what he was taught but his actions cause him bad karma (misfortune) and he can't understand why. In an earlier post I tries to counter the idea that he was an evil psychopath by saying he was a Destroyer Angel. After reading the novel, I feel that neither of these ideas was correct.
2. Early in the movie, why did Ryunsoke kill the old man at the pass? There is very little reason for this given in the movie, thus it makes Ryunsoke seem like psychopath right from the start. The real reason for this heinous act is hinted at late in the novel when a character mentions the occurrence of many "skill-testing" murders in that region. Skill-testing was frequently practiced at this time. "During the Edo period, many corrupt samurai exploited their high social rank to engage in "tsuji-giri", which involved roaming around town late at night and randomly testing their swords and techniques on innocent people. Tsuji-giri became so widespread at one time that the Shogunate addressed it in a group of civil laws collectively known as "Hyakkajou"." (outside source). Ryunsoke was very likely following the shocking sword "skill-testing" practice prevalent in certain areas of Japan at that time. In the movie, the old man prays to Buddha for an early death. I have not found this mentioned in the book. It one of the few times that the movie disagrees with the book. Unfortunately this little nuance in the movie caused me and others to misinterpret the scene. Unless the viewer is knowledgeable about the unusual history of "tsuji-giri" , it is plausible to interpret the murder as the work of either a psychopath, a destroyer Angel, or an angel of death. In fact, it was simply Ryunsoke doing what many other samurai were doing. It was clearly morally wrong by most standards, but it was accepted behavior by many samurai at the time.
Hope this helps. I will try to answer the other questions later in another post. It may be a few weeks. I also posted a version this in the discussion board for this movie if anybody want to respond.
Tais0's user comment ("extraordinary swordsman" in the title) was very good. His idea that a theme in the movie is that the tradition of "living by sword" leads to doom and self-destruction is right on.
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