Wonderfully offbeat film!

Very disappointed :(

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The title is taken from the male protagonist of the original novel, but the screenplay changes the opening and closing to the viewpoint of one of the female characters. The central portion still features the two male characters, but we never find out what happened to them. I think this is why reviewers found the ending unsatisfying.It has an all-star cast with young up and coming actors and Kenji Sawada grown much more rotund than his younger idol days. It is reputed to be Takashi Miike's first jidaigeki period film.Technical type comment. I own two copies of this film. The ArtsMagic copy has a very good "making of film" bonus that is English subtitled. This is all too rare for Japanese films. It also has subtitled interviews with the director and cast. But sadly the transfer of the feature film is much too dark. I didn't see anything in the background, some sets are very dimly lit, and it made for a rather dreary viewing experience. I suppose the darkness suits the Dickensian nature of the story. The disc bonus menu has annoying mismatch between the titles and the place to point your cursor. A few years later, I bought a Chinese-made high-bit copy and when I viewed it I was amazed to see much more detail in the background. It much improved the viewing experience. So you need to see both to optimize experience of this Miike film. I do not own a Japan-made copy, but it could be the best of all.

As mentioned in another review, this film should probably have been called "Eiji", because he is certainly the focus of attention. The slight plot revolves around a perceived injustice against him and its eventual resolution. The supporting cast are more sketches than characters, but the narrative survives the demands of this televisual simplification.As a historical document it's beautiful. Perhaps Miike wanted to show, much like Kurosawa, that even in the era of the Samurai, ordinary people also led lives tinged with drama. I felt that there was a hint of predetermined running time (perhaps two one hour episodes?) which led to a bit of a lull in proceedings around the hour mark. I resolved my putative ennui by resorting to the time honoured British tea ceremony. By the time I'd finished my refreshments, the plot had picked up again, and fortified by some quality tiffin, I thoroughly enjoyed the denouement. I'd guess that this is the Japanese equivalent of those great period dramas that the BBC excels at. I don't watch television, but I would if it could consistently offer a dramatic emotional diet as rich as this.

I find myself comparing this to the French miniseries, "Compte de Monte Cristo", and to "Manon des Sources - Jean de la Florette". Sabu, too was apparently produced for TV, and I admire the audience and director/producer/art director that permitted such a work to come to light. This is not a work produced for the lowest common denominator.The photography - the palette - the attention to small historical details, to nature, to emotions is fine.But I think of structure - ideas like exposition, rising action, peripetie, moment of final tension, denouement - and of Compte and Manon - and the French works seem more selective in their focus, as though examining a small group (the key parties to the action) under a microscope. Each fully. The good and the bad have their reasons, their views of life. Rising moments of tension are interspersed or silhouetted against pastoral moments or even comic or rustic relief.Here, in Sabu, I sometimes felt the scenery stole the show - i.e., that the action or development stalled. I sometimes felt the focus was confused - that more attention should have been given to Osue, Sabu, Onobu - and certainly more to Roku and to the old fellow prisoner who is so supportive.But I don't suggest Sabu fails to expose and delicately develop a host of characters - it does, but leaves us wanting more. And I sense a certain ideal "ratio" between the length of the film and the height and depth of its emotional swings has been violated. In Sabu, I find the rise and development of such moments too lengthy, or too understated to support the film's overall length in full dramatic fashion.Still, there are wonderfully moving and touching moments, people we wish we could know better, even a growing understanding of a society and a time in history. Characters who appear cruel become sensitive and supportive, characters who appear innocent have their failings, and there's nature and fate and a possibility of achieving true happiness through resignation. Its world may be more accommodating than that of Manon.I highly recommend this film. Despite weaknesses it's thought provoking. It's beautiful. It's humanist. I'll rate it a 9.

First things first, this isn't a Samurai movie as it is sometimes advertised. It's a period film set in the time of the Samurai, but the main characters are just normal folk. I might also mention that despite the film being named after the character Sabu, it spends almost the whole time focussed on his friend Eiji (played by Tatsuya Fujiwara of Battle Royale fame).It's hard to recognise the influence of director Takashi Miike here, as it features none of his usual over-the-top madness. However, it's another film that shows the director to be capable of far more than just shocking the audience with violence.However, I still reckon it amongst the weakest of 20 or so Miike films that I've seen. As a drama it's quite well made, but I was left largely unmoved by it. I wasn't quite sure what message or feeling I was meant to take away, and after 2 hours I felt that I still didn't really know or understand the characters that well. It felt like we were just getting part of a larger story, and what we glimpsed wasn't enough to fully appreciate it.That said, it was nice to see Tatsuya Fujiwara in a non-Battle Royale setting, though the film indicates as one might expect from one so young that his acting really isn't that great without Kinji Fukasaku and a strong screenplay behind him.Overall, I feel that it's a film I could have appreciated more if I'd known up front what it was about (no Samurai!), but that I don't expect to watch again any time soon to find out.