October 26 movie: The 47 Ronin Part 2. When Part 1 left off Lord Asano was dead, his retainers were scattered, and the chamberlain was secretly plotting to avenge his death by killing Lord Kira, the man who provoked Asano. Part 2 is kind of political: to throw people off his trail, the chamberlain appeals to get the house of Asano reformed. Unfortunately his appeal looks like it may be successful, which would remove his cause for revenge. I didn't really get this part: it's clear that killing Kira is a crime and all the retainers will be sacrificing themselves regardless. So what do they care if it looks justified or not? Also, everyone seems to know exactly what the chamberlain is planning, so his attempt to conceal his motives wasn't very effective.
Lady Asano isn't dead, by the way, nor did she seem to have lost much social status. So maybe the hair-cutting in Part 1 was done to show her grief at the death of her husband. Or maybe her shame at her husband's disgrace. I don't know, it was never explained. Anyway the 47 ronin get their revenge about an hour in. The second half of the movie deals with them visiting their lord's grave, then turning themselves in and calmly awaiting their sentence. They all seem pretty happy. I guess maybe the pressure was off once they'd achieved their goal. And since they knew death was inevitable, they weren't upset about it.
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