Title: St. Aida the Martyr
Producer: Kurosawa Shinzo
Director: Kurosawa Shinzo
Actors: - (animation)
Genre: Hagiography, Action, Drama
Content Rating: 18+ (contains gruesome scenes of torture)
Nationality: Nifonese
Language: Nifonese, English, Baran, Arabic, Inyurstan
Plot Summary:
Nifon, year 1545. Battle of Kunigami, between fighting forces of Tsu familly (governing Agumi)and Yatsushiro familly is about to begin. From the ranks of Yatsushiro armies walks a single, gigantic samurai known as Kotaro the Undefeated challenges the entire Tsu forces. For a brief period of time, all warriors of the Tsu family shudder, before a young samurai named Aida no Daisuke, as the only one who dares, accepts the challenge. He fights the giant warrior and successfully defeats him. When Aida shows the Yatsushiro army severed head of their undefeated champion, the opposing forces looses it's morale and falls apart, being easily defeated by ruthless charge of Tsu samurai.
Upon seeing Aida in action, the commander of Tsu forces, Lord Tsu no Tsurayuki, inquiries into his past. Daisuke is revealed to be a heir of an ancient familly of Tsu clan's vassals, which lost it's noble status due to infighting. Lord Tsurayuki becomes extremely interested in the man.
Upon returning home, Aida enters his house and falls on his knees to prayer, revealing himself to be a secret Christian. The newly recognized hero asks the Lord of Heaven for directions in his life. On one hand, he wants to stay true to will of Heaven, and on the other hand, he knows that his inevitable promotion will make a potential conflict far more likely than before, when he was just a minor officer.
Lord Tsurayuki summons Aida to his castle, where they two spend some time hunting and playing go. Eventually, when Aida saves Lord Tsurayuki from an attempted assassination by Ninja sent by Yatsushiro family, Lord Tsurayuki grows enamored with Aida and offers to make him his male favorite, offering him lands taken from the Yatsushiro familly as a fief. Though with great hardship, Aida refuses the offer, revealing his faith to Lord Tsurayuki, who - being a vassal of the Suda clan - persecutes Christians.
The two debate religion and ethics. Lord Tsurayuki can't understand the reason for Aida's behaviour, saying that according to him there is nothing wrong in pursuing male love. Aida replies that such concept is erroneous, as truth is something that's according to reality, not what one makes of ith. Lord Tsurayuki gets enraged and orders Aida imprisoned, saying that if he does not change his mind when Lord Tsurayuki returns from his voyage to the Capital, he will be severely punished.
Aida is imprisoned in dungeons of Tsu familly's castle. During his imprisonment, he is served by a Kirishinan girl that was captured by wako pirates in Kirishima and subsequently sold to the Tsu family. The girl is unable to understand how Aida, who could have had everything, rejected it all due to things that are not material. Aida replies to her that while he respects Lord Tsu, it's better to die for something that has a meaning than live for nothing, and his life having a meaning is a far greater treasure than all jewels of the world combined. A romance starts between the two, as they find mutual com front among their suffering.
Lord Tsu returns and opens a judgment over Aida. Despite multiple offers of riches and influence that he would have gotten if he rejected Christ, Aida remains unwavering in his faith. Even more enraged Lord Tsu sentences him to death, but hoping to impress the visiting delegation from the Suda clan, announces that his death would be by fighting ten most skilled swordsmen Tsu familly has on it's service, one of which is his son, fighting only with a wooden weapon.
Aida is thrown into a pit and forced to fight ten warriors - all of whom he defeats, yet refuses to kill them in gesture in good will. This enrages Lord Tsu to the point where he orders Aida's execution by slow slicing. Aida eagerly gives himself to his fate, showing a stone cold face in the wake of death. As he is tortured, he cries not a single time, only telling Lord Tsu that he served him faithfully in everything, and to seek Christ's forgiveness before it's too late. Lord Tsu, however, remains deaf and Aida is gruesomely executed.
Shortly after, a Tenshi comes and takes his soul to the Pure Land.
Lord Tsu does not, however, heed Aida's message, and a year later, on the verge of defeat, Yatsushiro family calls on Kenshin Murakami to intervene. The Lord of Hara battles Tsu familly and utterly destroys it's forces. Lord Tsurayuki's guard is slaughtered by Date Sorin, who bifurcates Lord Tsurayuki in the same place where where a year earlier he executed Aida, thus avenging the young swordsman.
The film ends with a message from Shogun Kojiro, urging all the Nifonese to follow in Aida's footsteps and reject liberalism.
