Yoro no tsuzumi

1701: After an obligatory period of one year in Edo (the name of Tokyo until the Meiji Restoration of 1868), Hikokuro (Rentaro Mikuni), the vassal of a feudal lord, returns home. There he finds his wife Otane (played with impressive nuance by Ineko Arima) acting strangely reserved. The members of his household are on edge, and the samurai are whispering behind his back. When he learns of his wife’s alleged infidelity, he refuses to believe the rumors. The family council that is convened also clears her of any wrongdoing. But then Otane confesses to adultery, to which the brutal moral code of the samurai knows only one response. Through an elaborate structure of flashbacks, repeatedly punctuated by the fascinating performance of a drummer and his pupil, Imai unpicks the harsh family dynamics that sustain and thereby entrench the oppressive feudal system. (mg)