47 Ronin

Positive—I loved the movie, and especially so because of the performance of Hiroyuki Sanada. Skilled and talented as an actor, he made the character of Oishi believable and relatable. He brought home the message of the Art of Manliness through his interpretation of the infamous samurai. An honor code of life.

Men of today have certainly forgotten what it is to men of biblical honor. Selflessness, commitment, honor, passion, skilled artisans in their trade (professionalism) and servanthood (humility). Oishi and his kind served their master with their lives and they chose disobedience to the shoganite ruler, breaking laws that would forbid them from taking revenge.

While Jesus never took revenge on mankind, he certainly did break the laws of Judaism as a way of correcting the dogmatic religious principles that they clung to fiercely. Revenge is what we know for the Bible says “vengeance is mine says the Lord”. This has often times been a challenge for me as it’s easier settle a score with other person than to trust God to do them justice. What we can learn from the samurai is that as Christians we need to adapt the samurai code of honor as our only way of life when it comes to serving God as our Lord and Savior. We should always and only serve Him with our very existence.

God is the master and we are the “Joy of His Life,” he sent His only son to take the fall for our sins. Just as Oishi’s master did for them. Humanity is loosing its basic value systems, that’s just our membership card to living a good life but to live a life honor would mean that we need to be challenged in artful living of acquiring virtues so that we can leave our comfort zone of being a good Christians, but rather to live our lives serving our Lord wit the life that He gave us.

A movie critic will have an opinion based on their knowledge and expectations but for us normal movies buffs, we look a little deeper than what our eyes can see, we look from a spiritual point of view.

I love Hiroyuik Sanada, and think that he portrayed a very intimate part of his own character by fusing it with that of the fictional Oishi. His eyes shows it in every scene. He’s doing more than mere acting, he’s living out his own honor code. He deserves to be saluted for his contribution to raising the conscious of our limited perceptions and for showing us that God deserves our lives to be dedicated to Him wholeheartedly, because it is written in the word that “every soul belongs to God.”
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 5

…an overlong, underwhelming movie… “47 Ronin” doesn't quite cut it as a samurai fantasy…

…it falls short on character definition, emotional involvement, narrative drive and originality, with a protagonist played by Keanu Reeves who often gets bumped to the sidelines. …

…“47 Ronin” is about magic, the fantastic, a witch, and CGI monsters that adorn a muddled and confused plot. … The film moves so slowly that snails pass it, with dialogue so predictable that one could be shouting out lines before they are spoken. … [1/5]

…An old flame shows up, but who invited the witch and monsters?… a studio movie adaptation of a story that ends — centuries-old spoiler! — with mass ritual suicide.

…Keanu Reeves is the draw but not the star of this visually dazzling but thoroughly bogus update of one of Japan's greatest legends. …

…Perhaps a folly and—Kikuchi aside—too deadpan to be a romp, this is still a decent, colourful samurai spectacle with a classical look (lots of symmetrical compositions) and a story which stands up under multiple retellings… [3/5]

…Poor pacing blunts impact of would-be epic “47 Ronin” …For an action movie, this lackluster film lacks action. [2/4]

…Keanu Reeves, computer-generated monsters and a pouty witch all fail to lift this lumpen and overly-gloomy Japanese revenge tale… [2/5]

…This VFX-heavy take on the Japanese legend of self-sacrifice goes all in for a bit of eastern mystery, but just feels bland and plodding… [2/5]