OKEHAZAMA - Nobunaga Oda Hao no Tanjo (2021)

Yes, I managed to find OKEHAZAMA (桶狭間～織田信長 覇王の誕生, OKEHAZAMA - Oda Nobunaga, the Birth of the Overlord), the TV special of Fuji TV featuring Ichikawa Ebizo XI as Nobu that aired on March this year-- I waited for a bit hoping for subtitles but they never happened, so I just watched it raw! That's why this more of a "summary" rather than a proper review, hopefully when subs would be available I'll comment this properly... 'Til then, let's just look at the tones of pictures (since you guys appreciate the looks of Ebizo XI!) and let's discuss the overall impression!

First, I liked the concept behind this TV special: basically, the movie covers the battle of Okehazama, but a series of flashbacks describe the deeds of Nobunaga during the years and how he came to this point of his life, the meaning behind this fateful battle as a turning point in history. The direction is pretty standard but fluid, as the narration is. This movie is pretty much a tribute to the taiga drama of the "old days", where the existence of the protagonists are pivotal in history, and the acting is fiery and intense-- I mean, you could recognize whole scenes and gestus coming straight from the movies of the 60s! You can tell that the main audience is old people and fans of Ebizo XI, but who we are to complain? As long as the movie is enjoyable we can forgive everything --But can we? And what's the gravity of the liberties taken by the scriptwriter--?

We'll discuss the issue later on, but first here are a few notes on the staff: the script is the job of Sumio Oomori and the director is Shunsaku Kawake. The historical reasearch is by Manabu Ooishi, supported by Michifumi Isoda.
Ooishi is used to collab with the world of entertainment: he's specialized about the Edo period, and besides Shinsengumi! (2004), his first job as historical consultant, he also contributed to movie adaptations of manga like Mugen no Juunin (2017).
This is a product dedicated to the TV audience then, who is up for spending a comfy evening at home without thinking too much.

This said, speaking of the contents, the movie opens with an introduction to the events that led to Okehazama battle, and we're immediately brought to Kiyosu, where Nobunaga is performing his "Atsumori" before the battle. As a theatre actor, sure this is when the skills of Ebizo XI shine.

The memory of Nobunaga then goes to the past, as a kid, remembering the words of his father. The young Kipposhi is played by Ichikawa Shinnosuke, Ebizo XI's son, while Nobuhide is Kazuki Kitamura.

After this, it's the time for a brief breakfast while wearing his armor: Nouhime shows up and there's time for a meaningful glance, lol: Nouhime is played by Suzu Hirose, which pretty much does nothing in this movie but praying the gods and putting her evil mother-in-law in place every now and then.

So, Nobu and his men leave Kiyosu early in the morning, and reach for Atsuta temple at 8 am. All his men gather there, including Mouri Yoshikazu (Ryunosuke Matsumura) and best boy Hattori Koheita (Ryusuke Mikata), the guys who are crucial to the death od Yoshimoto-- Of course in this movie we're shown them immediately and they are portrayed like Nobu's best bros. How cospicuous.

More flashback times, this time we're shown Nobu a few years ago, enjoying himself during the Tsushima festival: Koheita is explaing us the vibin' of his lord, how he accepts the more humble guys as long as he sees potential in them. So, this flashback turns into the explanation of how Kinoshita Tokichirou (Akiyoshi Akao), future Toyotomi Hideyoshi, entered his service.

Back to Atsuta, Nobu is rallying his men; Koheita keeps remembering how his soldiers are faithful and well-trained since they are the boys that followed him since they were kids. Young Nobu here is played by Kouki Kawasaki.

Meanwhile Imagawa Yoshimoto (Hiroshi Mikami) is passing through Owari to reach Kyoto. He's not expecting much out of Nobunaga, but he's still decided to remove any opposition he finds on his way.

Back in Kiyosu, Nouhime is busy with her praying, but Lady Dota (Hiromi Kuroki) is up to discredit Nobu by telling her about the inconclusive meeting with his vassals that he held the night before. Of course Lady Dota doesn't know a thing, as only Nouhime can access the secrets of Nobu as his confidant: --The outfit of Nobu, with that painted bat is quite stunning, here!

Nobu confesses her that he's worried about an enemy, who's not Yoshimoto, though, but the guy of Odaka castle.
He's talking about Matsudaira Motoyasu (Ouji Suzuka), future Tokugawa Ieyasu: He will be pivotal to the fall of Marune castle, and the defeat of Sakuma Morishige (Masaya Yamaguchi): This movie makes it look like Nobu thought out every detail out of the battle, which is not very likely...

The morning after, in fact, Nobu and his men, after leaving Atsuta, notice the smoke from Marune and Washizu, which meant that the strongholds fell. It's around 8.30 am.

Contemplating the ruins of the assaulted castles brings Motoyasu to the past, when he was still an hostage of the Oda. As a young boy (Rai Takahoshi), here he had his first meeting with Nobu, that he recognized as a worthy rival immediately.

Another flashback, this time dedicated to the alliance between Mino and Owari to face Suruga is narrated by Nouhime.
Nouhime was aware of her role since she was a kid (Ichikawa Botan, Ebizo XI's daughter) and treasured a short sword that her father presented to her: Saito Dousan is played by Kouichi Saito. I enjoyed the portrayal of Dousan through the years, growing in intensity. After the marriage between Nouhime and Nobu, we're shown about the famous meeting at Shotokuji temple. Dousan was up to kill Nobunaga and claim Owari as his own, but meeting the guy made him change his mind, as he realized that his behaviour as "a fool" was a very way to fool his opponents. Ultimately Nobu couldn't help Dousan during the rebellion of his son where he perished, and Nouhime is devasted by the thing-- Not just because her beloved father died, but also because now, because of her brother's actions, she's turned into an enemy for Nobu. --But you know how such things go in dramas.

Anyway, Nobu is still marching to the battlefield, taking his next stop at Zenshoji temple turned fort, where he set his headquarter at 10 am; meanwhile the Imagawa forces camped around the valley of Okehazama; in this moment of quiet the two warlords tried to read into each other. Nobu has the advantage of playing home, so he can count on the support of the locals: Masatsuna Yanada (Akapen Takigawa), a little landowner of Owari provides Nobunaga with the location of Imagawa's camp, so that Nobu could define a strategy to ambush his forces.

As Sassa Narimasa (Keisuke Sakamoto) and Senjou Suetada (Arata Horii) are guarding Nakajima fort, at Zenshoji Nobu and his men are up to plotting. At this point it becomes vital to force the Imagawa forces stay in place, as the position is optimal for an ambush.

Help came from the local farmers, triggered by Masatsuna, who brought food and sake to stop Imagawa from moving forward. Then, Nobu starts to organize the attack, using a vanguard led by Shibata Katsuie (Ryuhei Matsuda), that included a reluctant Koheita and Yoshikazu. Apparently Koheita doesn't like Katsuie because he once served Nobu's younger brother, Nobukatsu.

Nobukatsu (Tooru Baba) in this movie is a traitorous little shit, and fueled by his mother and his vassals, he tried to rebel against Nobunaga various times. In the end Nobunaga didn't trust the reconciling words of their mother and decided to take action with the unexpected helkp of Katsuie. Nobu lured Nobukatsu at Kiyosu, and of course Nobukatsu tried to kill him, but he was uncovered by Nobu and forced to kill himself. When he refused and tried to kill Nobu instead, Katsuie struck him from the back.
Of course Koheita was there, and he didn't like the behavious of this senior vassal at all, seeing him as insincere and traitorous.

So, Nobu was leaving Zenshouji to meet with the rest of his troops at Nakajima fort but he met the opposition of some of his older vassals, who would prefer for their lord to keep his foothold in the fort. Nobu disregarded the opposition and headed to Nakajima around 12:30 am.

Nobu left Nakajima to move for Okehazama during a storm, as the vanguard led by Katsuie was getting ready to advance in the mud by wearing specific sandals. This invention was somehow credited to Hideyoshi, but applied to the horses, not to people-- I guess it makes sense, though!

As soon as the sun showed up in the sky, at 2 pm, the two Oda armies applied a pincer attack, and while the Katsuie army surprised the main camp with guns, the rest of the troops led by Nobu assaulted it from the other side. I was surprised to see guns being used here, lol, but I wasn't ready for what came after!

So, Yoshimoto tried to escape but Nobunaga spotted him and reached him by a shortcut-- And ultimately shot at him!! So at this point Yoshimoto and Imagawa faced each other with their own convintions and started to fight there and then! Nobu killed people with only one hand! Yoshimoto ripped the tongue out of a guy!!!

The thing was then solved by a duel, and at that point I was in a full WTF mood: So, according to this version of the story, Yoshimoto was killed by Nobu himself, and once he was dead, Nobu granted Koheita to cut Yoshimoto's head as he didn't care about it.

I mean, WTF?
This was so stupid, what was the point? Showing off this super Nobu? Making old men happy--? Pleasing Ebizo XI as a Nobu fan--?
The movie was entertaining, but how can someone take this shit seriously?

Anyway, post credit scene, Ichikawa Ebizo XI dancing "Atsumori" once again, this time as Nobunaga at Honnoji: Now it was Nobu's turn to incarnate "the old" facing "the new".
--And that's it.

On a parting note, Ebizo XI's acting was much better here than in Naotora, probably because this was a younger Nobunaga rather than a "Devil King"... It's still a bit forced and old-fashioned, but I assume that this is the "favour" of this actor, by now...
Long story short, this is a movie that has got its technical value, but from the historical point of view is pretty much crap, so approach it as you'd approach a drama from the 60s rooted in fiction, and you'll manage to enjoy it.