THE LEGEND & BUTTERFLY (2023)

So, I finally managed to watch THE LEGEND & BUTTERFLY, the TOEI colossal featuring Kimura Nobunaga! Looks like the movie was featured in the Far East Film Festival this year, promptly followed by an international released over Amazon Prime Video! Lucky!

Ok, this movie is a perfect example of the "Watch before you speak" attitude that should be our first priority in judging media.
Is this historically correct? No.
Is it politically correct? Maybe, but probably no.
Is it a "feel good" Sengoku movie? No, by any means.
So, is it a good movie worth watching? Yes, oh, yes, it's quite good. As long as you pay attention and read through the lines.

PLEASE MIND THE SPOILERS. If you didn't watch this yet and plan to do, ignore this review for now.

Let's start with the performance of Takuya Kimura.
Most of us remember him for his performance as a young Nobunaga back in 1998, so I was curious to see him as Nobunaga so many years after. I was quite perplexed by his portrayal of Nobunaga in the first half-hour-or-so of the movie, wondering if this is how Kimura really wanted to be remembered in this role.
Then, as our warlord grew in age, the performance of Takuya becomes darker and darker, leaving us dumbfounded in the final scene. It's not just an actor playing a role, it feels like Kimura permeated the character with his own experience, making us realize how a man would cling to the love of his soulmate in his darkest hour, what power and achievent amount to in front of death.

So, this movie is about war, love but most importantly it's about the experience of grief, sorrow-- how such feelings manipulate characters and relationships, expecially in a critical period like the Sengoku era.

As a preface to the review-- I liked the historical trivia and rumors scattered on the script.
You can't really say that this movie is historically accurate, it's fictional at its very core and it's intended to be so. This is not a documentary or a history class-- But I can't say that this is all pure fantasy, as many scenes are extremely "academic" in their portrayal, feeling like coming straight from an history manual. You can take it as some hybrid: fiction and a precise cinematic photography portray a "mood", and punctual historical references and actual quotes give credibility to a fantasy.
One thing is for sure: this was quite entertaining.

A perfect example of this narrative was in the rendition of the premises of the Battle of Okehazama. This was the most "controverse" part of the movie, as many considered it a mere trick to female awareness movements, but I think that the intention of the author was not just showing us that "a woman could do that too", but how Nobunaga and Nouhime characters were so complementary for both of them to get their true colors out because of their relationship-- During the scene, Nouhime doesn't just tell Nobunaga what to do, she encourages him to think himself, extracting that charisma and military prowess that were there already.

Another interesting interpretation was how Kitsuno (Ai Mikami) alerted Nouhime of her pregnancy first. I remember reading that in ancient Chinese culture, the main wife was somehow responsible of the other concubines and their children. She was some kind of "general" of the household, and this scene reminded me of that ideal situation.

After Okehazama came quickly the conquest of Mino, and we're showed Nobunaga coming with a new name for the area. He also mentioned Mount Sagi as the place of Nouhime's childhood. As soon after, came the march on Kyoto to escort shogun Yoshiaki: We can say that "Kyoto" marks the turning point of this pairing.

During a walk there as commoners, in fact happens quite the WTF scene-- It was all fun and games before the two faced some mob; the fun walk turned into a bloody massacre, and still drunk with adrenaline, the two, smerared in blood, finally had their first, passionate intercourse. --This was incredible. Eros and Thanatos in a most unexpected development.
As a Jizo is splattered in blood, we can already sense that things are not destined to end nicely.

With the first defeat at Anegawa, came Nouhime's abort. Nobunaga is devasted by the loss of his men, Nouhime is because she feels unworth and a woman and a wife-- But Nobunaga has no tears left to waste on "just one child".

After this episode something "clicked" in Nobunaga as he got more and more ferocious-- reaching the "Demon Lord" status: He can no longer be a "decent man" if he wants to achieve the unification of Japan under his very banner. He must become a Demon, he must kill his heart.

Some worried vassals went and tried to convince Nouhime to talk some sanity in their lord, but to Nouhime's horror, things changed, and Nobunaga didn't listen to her anymore.
I couldn't help thinking about this same dynamic in Kirin ga kuru: how Nouhime stuck to Nobunaga until he did what she wanted, and how they grew apart as soon as Nobunaga started to get fixated on his very own warped ideals.

The real novelty here is Mitsuhide (Hio Miyazawa), portrayed as a true warmonger who wanted to bathe in the blood of their enemies-- He idolized Nobunaga as the Demon King, and he was the one to present him the gilded skulls on New Year: Nobunaga drank avidly from the skull of Nagamasa-- He never liked sake very much, but this tasted delicious.

Nouhime confronted him again, but they realized they are now utterly incompatible despite their feelings... They have their final showdown during some kind of mass: It may feel ironic and inappropriate how the two divorced in a church, but, Nobunaga looking up to an icon of Virgin Mary, felt more like he was making a final "sacrifice", like the one that was going on up the altar.

Another scene that amused me in a WTF yet good sense, was the one where Nobunaga walked around the battlefield of Nagashino covered with corpses. There were butterflies mingling with the corpses.
Nobunaga spotted a very voracious one, sipping blood from the wound of a dead soldier, and right after it, it flew over Nobunaga's shoulder.
It was interesting seeing the use of buttlerflies as coprophagous critters. Butterflies could be a nod to the Taira crest, usually sported by Mobunaga in battle, but also to Nouhime, whose name is supposed to be "Kichou".

The scene where Nobunaga threw up during the sumo show with the courtesans as special guests was quite unique, too.
Regarding the "discomfort" suggested by such scenes, many quoted the cinematography of Kurosawa. Not sure it has something to do with it. Kurosawa was a bit like Fellini, he wanted to bring "extravagance" and grottesque in his portrait of reality, playing with the watcher.
In this sense, the work of Otomo here shares some similarities, but these don't have the insolence of an artistic stance, they are just "clues", tiny "intermissions of madness" in an otherwise congruous narrative.
I think this is why they are so important, in the "big picture" of the movie.

So, at this point of the story, both Nobu and Nouhime are miserable.
Nobunaga is approached by a desperate Sadaie Fukuzumi (Hideaki Ito), Nouhime's faithful assistant turned husband, and here we got the second turning point of the relationship, Azuchi: The scenes where Nobunaga took care of a sickly Nouhime are peculiarly endearing. The idea of our warlord farming medicinal herbs after the missionaries is another amusing novelty.

As the two reconciled and look like they finally found some peace, here came Honnoji.

It's interesting how Mitsuhide rebels againsty Nobunaga once he realized that his lord is not "a real Demon" and probably Ieyasu is bound to surpass him... Well, this is quite the original interpretation, probably the first time we see something like this--?

The end, literally bringing us to reality, is a punch in the stomach.
We finally got our Nobunaga dancing Atsumori, though:
And that's it.

Another thing I was completely wrong about this movie, was its message. As much as it fits the trope of "going on a trip to the West" with its escapist implications, there's something more, here, and it's not just a tune reminding us to take care of the things that are really important to us in our short life-- It's a very specific portrait, dedicated to two ambitious personalities who wanted to engrave their role in history. One was a fool, the other was born a woman.