Ezhara wrote:Busts down door.
I am Ezharally obliged to sign up, here's a mega whale film loosely inspired by Seven Samurai.
Attendance Request
Nation of Origin: Ezhara
Amount of Attendees: 6
Attendee Names: Lyosha Korobov, Eiko Michori, Tomoe Michori, Minato Suiseki, Rainer Jian, Eve Amagi
Attendee Jobs(Optional): Idol, Actor, manager/mother of Eiko, Actor, Director, Writer
Movie Entry Request
Nation Name: Ezhara
Movie Name: — Soris Datae —
Is your movie a:
Drama[X]
Synopsis of Movie:In a feudalistic reimagining of the Ezharan city of Suzurai, Mori Kurosawa (Eiko Michori) is a poor peasant boy living with his mother, Bai Jingu (Minato Suiseki), a former musician whose fading beauty had her removed from the court. One stormy night, she had been the only one to house an old wandering Ronin, who fled the day after, leaving her to raise her child alone. Despite this, Bai eventually manages to secure an apprenticeship for Mori with the local blacksmith, while she herself takes on various odd jobs to supplement their income, including picking tea at a local plantation. Despite his young age, Mori turns out to be a diligent apprentice, quickly clearing tasks so that he could watch his master create swords and armor, an activity that Mori simulated as best he could without using the forge itself. However, he does turn out to be anxious and selectively mute whenever not with his mother, being able to communicate with only gestures, and rarely whispers, otherwise. Despite her best efforts at pushing him to speak more, only the blacksmith earns enough trust to speak directly with him, and Mori remains isolated from the other children in the village because of this behavior, alongside his peculiar habit of eating lycoris petals.
By the time Mori catches up to his mentor, only a few years have passed, and the blacksmith admits that he has little else to teach the boy. Still, with nobody else in Mori's life beyond the three of them, he stays as an assistant, albeit quickly gaining renown in the village for his reliability and skill as an equal to the blacksmith. However, a group of patrolling soldiers soon enlist the man's aid in stopping a group of bandits, and despite Mori's attempts to join his master, he is rebuffed and told to stay at the smithery. In the ensuing battle, the blacksmith and several soldiers are slain; a hollow victory for the village. Still, their return is greeted with modest fanfare, and one of the soldiers notices Mori's mutism and Bai's old instruments during the celebration, in turn prompting him to invite Mori to see his father. Although he is uncertain if he should accept, his mother encourages him to, in order to discover who he is, but cautions that he must first figure out how to overcome his mutism and anxiety before he could possibly take the journey.
Alongside several other local boys dreaming of adventure, ranging from 12 to 16, Mori begins his training, primarily as a camp aide, whereas the others, who are older than him, take on roles as the color guard and color sergeants. However, the boys are initially strained in their relationships: Mori, being socially anxious, occasionally causes them to be punished for not speaking, and they begin to bully him for his behavior. Still, his resolve remains unshakeable, and with the kindness of the soldiers' accompanying monk, Mori slowly grows comfortable speaking to others, after which one of the color sergeants begins to warm up to him. Now with two people supporting him, Mori manages to mostly conquer his mutism by the time the color guard's training is completed, though the group remains relatively disconnected from him. Just before their group leaves, though, Mori speaks with his mother one last time, telling him that, even if he has nothing, he keeps living. He promises to her that he'll remember it.
The journey encounters little difficulty en route to Mori's father, and the color guard begins to grow bored at the lack of action despite the warnings of the soldiers to not be so desperate for glory. Still, with the exception of Mori, the boys express intense desires to be heroes, and Mori grows increasingly distant from them because of his anxiety, as he believes that their desire for heroism will result in trouble. While the monk tries to convince him otherwise, the color guard and sergeants soon draw themselves into conflict with a local lord when they confront him for his ignoble behavior. Disgraced by the boys, the lord then attempts to expunge the entire group, only to be met with fierce resistance from several of his disloyal troops and Mori's group. In the ensuing chaos, Mori and the color guard are nearly killed while attempting to escape with the rest of their group, but the former's resolve keeps both of them alive. Unfortunately, the remaining adults have been slain in their attempt to save the youths, and red lycoris grows around the boys as they depart.
Shaken, but undeterred, the boys are unsure how to proceed, as going back home involved trying to sneak back into the lord's land. With little else to do, they decide to continue on their adventure, and return to their village as heroes. After finding a village, they perform various odd jobs while their charismatic color guard attempts to find a more "dignified task," eventually stumbling upon information of a nearby bandit camp. During their planning just downhill of the camp, Mori slips off to sell a sword to the bandits loaded with an explosive material in its hilt. While the other boys are quick to accuse him of betrayal, the blade soon blows up, igniting the camp, and one of the color sergeants awakens wind powers that he uses to find the bandits. After securing all of their targets, the boys find that they are unable to bring themselves to kill anyone — until one captured bandit attempts to take his vengeance. With the color guard captain wounded, the boys turn on the bandits, and Mori is forced to execute them. As he does so, lycoris grows around him yet again.
Even more shaken despite the celebrations of the villagers, Mori finds himself unable to sleep, and wanders off into the night, encountering a field of more lycoris, where he sees a vision of his mother urging him to find his father. With the morning, he returns to his group and requests that they help him find his father, and they agree, but one of them expresses an unusual reluctance. Pulling Mori aside, he admits that he was sent by Mori's father to watch over him... and that he does not wish to see Mori, regarding him as "a disgraceful son that I ought to have never sired with that bygone courtesan." Though hurt, Mori refuses to give in, stating that he will prove himself, prove that he can be a Ronin of equal acclaim. Though his compatriot is somewhat doubtful, he encourages Mori, believing that the world needed more people like him who could endure, unlike his cowardly father who had fled from his problems.
The boys enter another village, this time one with a blacksmith of some renown. One of the color sergeants, in a fit of indignance, insults the work of the blacksmith, drawing Mori into a competition with him that the youth barely wins. However, he then forces his friend to apologize and reconcile, drawing out the other man's compassion. He then tells them to be wary of Mori's father, telling the boys that the man is not above cowardly tricks, and may well use them against them if he feels threatened. Still, the boys decide that the least they can do for Mori is this one task, in service for his role as executioner, and as recompense for not being there when they were younger, as their humble tasks in the villages have taught them the value of compassion. Namely, a cave-in leaves miners trapped while they travel to the castle of Mori's father, and the color guard's resolve manifests as a devastating charge that manages to clear the rubble.
Soon enough, the boys come to the castle, and an outrider meets with them, telling them that Mori's father wishes to see none of them. Undeterred, the boys group together away from the castle, but their interviews with those nearby reveal that nobody has managed to ever besiege or navigate it successfully beyond the soldiers inside. Indeed, despite their best efforts, they can find not even a side entrance in, and they consider giving up. For a time, the boys spend some time in the neighboring village helping, while Mori focuses his efforts on researching the castle, only for a messenger to tell him that his father wishes to see him. Though he's certain that it's a trap, he is unable to stop himself, and goes to visit, leaving behind no note for the other boys.
Mori enters the room with his father, and the two of them are alone. Mori steps forward, and his father rises, drawing his sword. Mori refuses to draw his own, and his father dashes forward, scowling as his blade nears his son's neck.
Before he can decapitate Mori, they are interrupted by yells from outside, and the boy realizes that his friends were unwilling to abandon him. Father and son alike run to the courtyard to see the color guard and color sergeants combining their powers in a display of teamwork to ignore the castle's walls and traps. Inspired by their devotion, Mori draws his sword and attacks his father, tumbling down into a moonlit garden filled with lycoris, which blossom wildly as the two fight. While the soldiers of Mori's father attempt to help their master with covering fire, the boy's friends continuously interrupt them, sacrificing themselves in the process.
With each death, the lycoris blooms ever more, until eventually the apparition of Mori's mother appears behind him. Though stunned by the reappearance of his wife, Mori's father shakes it off and lands a near-lethal blow on his son, only to be immediately tackled by the near-dead color guard, who plants his flag just before his death. Upon seeing it, Mori feels his resolve reignite itself one last time as the lycoris petals swarm around him, and he pushes his sword into his father's back before then collapsing, amidst the blooming lycoris, ruined castle, and the bodies of those defeated.
He reawakens in the village, evidently having been nursed back to health, with the tattered flag at his side. After thanking the family who aided him, he asks if they wish for him to stay, only to be told to return home and report back on the deaths of his friends. He obliges, and with the help of a local funeral director, embalms his friends' bodies, so that they can be retrieved at a later date.
Despite having survived, Mori finds himself haunted by both his friends and his kills and is unable to rest, and so constantly collapses on the road out of exhaustion. Still, he manages to make it to the blacksmith's village, only to receive no warm welcome; his ability with the lycoris had led to him being called a demon, and not even his former rival was willing to speak to him. Though alone, he pushes onward, to the place where the adults of their group had been slain, and his reputation precedes him yet again, leading him to wonder why he was even helped in the first place. Just before exiting the lord's domain, though, Mori is attacked, but he manages to spare most of the sent soldiers, refusing to become the demon that his reputation claimed him to be.
Soon enough, he makes his way home to his mother, who still treats him as she always had. After telling her of the deaths of his companions, and requesting that she share it, he exits the house, kneels in his lycoris garden next to an altar of his father, and stares at the moon, only for his quiet reverie to be interrupted by the villagers, who believe that he had killed his companions, their sons, and who were now furious. They present him a choice: let himself die, or let his mother die.
"If it will please you..."
Before he can choose, his mother lets herself perish, and he begins to cry. Satisfied, the villagers leave him in his despair, as he is overwhelmed by the loss of everyone, but he is reminded...
"Even when you have nothing, you keep living... That's what mom told me when I started on this journey."
He walks away, towards some new fate, leaving behind his garden, still followed by his companions — but with a new resolve to keep going. For them
In Ezhara, — Soris Datae — became critically acclaimed for its dramatization of the shonhai genre in Suzurai, which often featured preteen protagonists, as Mori was, in adventurous scenarios. However, the film takes a much darker turn on the genre, instead choosing to acknowledge the mental ramifications such adventures would have, since many of them involved adventures in fantastical worlds and youths alone. It is not hopeless, though, as Eiko's characters chooses to keep going, to keep holding hope in his heart. Overall, though, the film was praised on all counts, especially the acting of Eiko Michori; according to an interview with Rainer, the boy's speech upon hearing that his father did not wish to see him was entirely re-improvised despite Eve writing a separate one, but that said improvisation was vastly better. Idol Hanyuu Natsuki and Mascot Jae-Sun Gisara also collaborated on the soundtrack, mixing the solemnity of the latter and the traditional instruments of the former. The set pieces, backgrounds, and overall visual design were also vastly praised, with fans and professionals alike redrawing or drawing inspiration from them.
Main Actors: Eiko Michori, Minato Suiseki
Director: Rainer Jian
Writer: Eve Amagi
Movie Poster(Optional):(Image)
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