ii eiga da naa? (Samurai Rebellion)

I finally caved in and ordered the Criterion Collection box set "Rebel Samurai -- Sixties Swordplay classics" from amazon. I think of it as, "branching out after you've watched all of Kurosawa's films." Tonight I sat down for the first film in the set, "Samurai Rebellion" by Masaki Kobayashi. It's allegedley the most traditional of the four, as befits the director of Kwaidan -- it was his first independent film after leaving the studio system -- and it wears the Kurosawa mantle of heavyweight samurai drama well. After this, I can't wait to watch the rest of the set!