Mandate of Heaven, Law of Compassion: Ôoku: Eien (Emonnosuke/Tsunayoshi) (Film Review)

[Image: Kanno Miho as the Shogun Tsunayoshi; she is holding a fan] Credit: moviecollection.jp

OKAY. IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS. LET’S DO THIS.

Contains major spoilers for Ôoku: Eien (Emonnosuke/Tsunayoshi) (film, 2013) and Yoshinaga Fumi’s Ôoku, vol. 4-6 (manga).

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The Inner Chambers of the Dog Shogun: Ôoku, Volumes 4-6, Part 3

New to Ôoku? Start here. Introduction to this arc here.

Major spoilers for the Iemitsu (vol 2-4) and Tsunayoshi arcs (vol. 4-6), including the drama and the Ôoku: Eien film. Warnings: the plot of this story arc contains sexual assault and abuse, dubious consent, murder, the death of a child, and back-stabbing, and is generally NSFW.

Tsunayoshi plays a game with her daughter Matsu-hime. Vol. 5, p. 16.

Hideous Beauty

One aspect of Tsunayoshi’s character that I found fascinating was her relationship to beauty ideals.

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Inside the Inner Chambers of the Dog Shogun: Ôoku, Volumes 4-6, Part 2

Introduction here. Spoilers for the Iemitsu (vol 2-4) and Tsunayoshi arcs (vol. 4-6), including the drama and the Ôoku: Eien film. Warnings: the plot of this story arc contains sexual assault and abuse, dubious consent, suicide, murder, and all the back-stabbing. I’ve kept the mostly images PG-13 (there’s a little gore in one) but the content is not safe for work.

“I’m not like the former Shogun, who agreed to anything.” Vol. 183.

Brought to you by the Bechdel test

Let’s start with the most obvious point: Tsunayoshi can be a morally reprehensible woman precisely because the Ôoku has equal gender representation, both in her story arc and the work at large.

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Inside the Inner Chambers of the Dog Shogun: Ooku, Volumes 4-6

Spoilers for the Iemitsu (vol 2-4) and  Tsunayoshi arcs (vol. 4-5), including the drama and the Ôoku: Eien film.

I have been thinking about this post for three years.

Vol. 4, p. 123. “Bored! Bored! Bored!” and sick of all her concubines.

Initially, when I finished reading the Iemitsu-Arikoto story arc (see here for manga and here for drama recaps), I was emotionally raw.

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Promotional Pictures for Ôoku Drama and Movie (2012)

Finally! I’ve been waiting and waiting for some teaser photos from the new Ôoku TV series (Ôoku Tanjô, Oct. 2012) and film (Ôoku Eien, Dec. 2012), and here they are! (Full index of posts on the series here.)

TBS Drama. Ôoku: Tanjô (Arikoto/Iemitsu) (『大奥：誕生』[［有功・家光篇]). Release date: Oct. 2012.

“The Shogun is a woman; her retainers are 3000 beautiful men….” Photo from TBS: http://ohoku.jp/eien/index.html

Oh.

Let me talk about effective uses of visual media for marketing to potential viewers and to rabid fans. When you release the first promotional photos into the wild, you want your audience to have an immediate all-caps reaction Tumblr-style:

WHAT IS THAT I MUST SEE IT NOW
ALL THE FEELS
CAN’T BREATHE

John Barrowman after David Tennant kissed him at ComicCon

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New Ôoku Movie and TV Drama Announced for 2012

Image from news.livedoor.com

Followers of this blog know both how much I love Yoshinaga Fumi’s Ôoku (男女逆転大奥)–both the 2010 film version of vol. 1 (Yoshimune-Mizuno) and especially the Iemitsu-Arikoto story arc in vols. 2-4 (full index here). One of my Yoshinaga-fan friends and I have often talked about how great it would be if there were movies or a TV show of the other story arcs in the manga, particularly the Iemitsu arc, and now our wish has been granted. The Arikoto-Iemitsu storyline (vol. 2-4) will be made into a serial drama to be aired on TBS starting in October 2012, and the Emonosuke-Tsunayoshi arc (vol. 4-6) will be made into a film, which will open in theaters nationwide on Dec. 22, 2012, after the airing of the drama finishes.

There are some spoilers below, so be warned.

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