Everybody which like to read either Japan historical fiction or non-fiction probably familiar with names such as Oda Nobunaga, Sanada Yukimura, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Ishikawa Goemon. I know them too, because I have playing Koei games since my childhood, from Nobunaga Ambition strategy game to the recent Samurai Warriors hack and slash series. This year, Japan released ‘Goemon’, a movie about 16th century famous thief that became a legend for his great deeds, much like Robin Hood in English folklore.

I have expected that movie for long, and I finally watched it last night. I won’t praise it much for it’s not as great as western war movies, and it has ‘only’ decent CGI, not as superbly Lord of the Ring or Saving Private Ryan. But there’s one thing that made this movie surprising. It showed Oda Nobunaga differently from other media.

There’s a recent discussion with my friend in dA, how I was curious with a lot of demonic portrayal of Oda Nobunaga in many games and anime. Neutral depiction was found only in Koei’s Nobunaga Ambition (which is strategy game, so it was up to player to made him good or bad). And so far, I only found a good Oda Nobunaga in Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko novel. It came to me that maybe there was something political in here, because it’s not him who finally united all Japan after the warring states era. It was Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Although Goemon was picturing Oda as the good legendary general, it still defiantly changes Toyotomi Hideyoshi as an old pervert bastard, and Tokugawa Ieyasu still as the great general. Indirectly, this movie also brings political means. It’s not hard to find political driven movie, as Hollywood has made many and will still produce them. But I was shocking by eastern moviemaker movements, as both Korean and Chinese did the same. Through 2008-2009, I watched almost 5 epic movies produced by Chinese (or Taiwan. I didn’t know for sure). I too remember watching ‘The Divine Weapon’; a Korean epic that declares Korea was the first region that originates the rocket weapon. In my home country, there was also a release of ‘Merah Putih’, an epic showed a struggle between Indonesian and Dutch army (I found again that Dutch portrayal was typical brute: trigger happy and rapist).

Is it only a coincidence, or there were urgent means to show others the military supremacy through movies? As we already knew, a military and political balance in the world recently has dangerously shifted. Terrorism and nuclear weapons were the problems to all country, and wars weren’t exactly over.

In the end, I just hope that producing epic war movies was only a pure business move, not political. Hopefully too, my taste to watch them just merely a pleasure, not an embodiment of any crusade.

For those who has watched Goemon (spoiler alert):
There’s a part of this movie where the writer decided to replace Sanada Yukimura’s role in charging Tokugawa Ieyasu throne in Sekigahara into Goemon’s. In this movie, Goemon didn’t charge him with naginata (Japanese pike like weapon), but with a folded fan, and throwing words about ending the suffering of war. It’s a lovable scene for me.




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