Unforgiven (2013)

Original title

許されざる者

Directed by

Sang-il Lee

Genre

drama film, action film

Country

Japan

Runtime

2h 15m

Rated

MA 15+

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 80 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A former samurai is living quietly in Hokkaido during the early Meiji period. An old friend asks him to join a bounty hunt for two men who hurt a prostitute. He must decide whether to return to the violent life he left behind.

grittysomberslow-burnmeditativeviolentmorally complexmelancholicatmospheric

What happens

Unforgiven (許されざる者, Yurusarezaru Mono) is a 2013 Japanese jidaigeki film written and directed by Sang-il Lee. It is a Japanese-language remake of Clint Eastwood's 1992 western Unforgiven, starring Ken Watanabe in the lead role, along with Kōichi Satō, Akira Emoto, Yuya Yagira, Shioli Kutsuna, and Jun Kunimura. The plot closely follows the original 1992 film, but shifts the setting from the American Wild West to Japan's Hokkaido frontier during the early Meiji period. Jubei Kamata (Watanabe), a former samurai, is approached by an old associate to help claim the bounty on two men who have disfigured a prostitute. The film was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film also made its US debut as the opening film for LA EigaFest 2013. It was also presented in 2014 in the Palm Springs International Film Festival (World Cinema Now category) and out of competition in the 70th Venice International Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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