The Fall of Ako Castle (1978)
This is the story of "The Forty-Seven Ronin." Based on historical events in 1701-2, the movie tells the tale of the Asano clan's downfall and the revenge of its former samurai on the perpetrator of the catastrophe. Lord Asano was goaded, or tricked, into drawing his sword inside the Shogun's palace -- a crime which carried the death penalty. The newly installed Shogun was furious at Asano and ordered all his clan's assets seized, meaning some 20,000 samurai and commoners were unemployed and landless at a stroke. Forty-seven of these ronin (masterless samurai) banded together to take attempt revenge on Lord Kira, who had goaded Asano into drawing his sword.
Director:
Kinji Fukasaku
Writer:
Kōji Takada
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Kinnosuke Nakamura as Oishi Kuranosuke |
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Sonny Chiba as Fuwa Kazuemon |
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Tsunehiko Watase as Kobayashi Heihachiro |
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Teruhiko Saigō as Asano |
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Kyōko Enami as Ukibashi |
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Masaomi Kondo as Hashimoto Heizaemon |
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Shinsuke Mikimoto as |
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Hiroki Matsukata as Denhachiro Tamon |
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Shinsuke Ashida as Shikibe |
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Jun Fujimaki as Yajuemon |
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Takuya Fujioka as Kurobei Ohno |
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Toshirō Mifune as Tsuchiya Michinao |
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Seizō Fukumoto as |
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Mieko Harada as Hatsu Hashimoto |
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Nobuo Kaneko as Kira |
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Yoshi Katō as Yahei Horibe |
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Toru Minegishi as Yasubei Horibe |
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Yoshiko Mita as Akuri |
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Kensaku Morita as Jujiro |
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Sanae Nakahara as Todano tsubone |
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Mikio Narita as Kato |
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Yoko Natsuki as Osen |
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Ken Nishida as Daigagu Asano |
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Ryō Nishida as |
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Mariko Okada as Riku Ohishi |
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Junkichi Orimoto as Tokubei |
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Yûsuke Satô as Yagashira |
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Harumi Sone as Torii |
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Mizuho Suzuki as Narrator |
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Maki Tachibana as Shino Ohtaka |
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Ryo Tamura as Uesugi |
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Tetsuro Tamba as Yanagisawa |
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Minori Terada as Gengo Ohtaka |
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Go Wakabayashi as Araki |
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Shōji Yasui as Uemon |
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Hideji Ōtaki as Yamada |
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Matagoro Nakamura III as Date Sakyōnosuke |
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Kagari Asakawa as |
| Directing | Kinji Fukasaku | Director |
| Art | Norimichi Igawa | Production Design |
| Editing | Isamu Ichida | Editor |
| Writing | Kōji Takada | Screenplay |
| Sound | Toshiaki Tsushima | Original Music Composer |
| Camera | Yoshio Miyajima | Director of Photography |
| Camera | Hanjirō Nakazawa | Director of Photography |