Review of Gohatto (aka Taboo)

Introduction

It`s 1865, and the Shinsengumi samurai school is stunned when a young 18 year old, Sozaburo Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda) comes to join their ranks. In a word, he`s physically beautiful with long hair and a sullen expression, he`s a pretty boy, a `bishonen`. He soon becomes an object of desire with quite a few of the men making overtures in his direction. The seemingly innocent Kano is good with a sword and no less brutal when it comes to killing in the line of duty. This is not your typical samurai film and instead of samurai combat, we look at relationships here between the men and young Kano.

Video

The 1.85:1 anamorphic video transfer is very crisp. The beautiful cinematography comes across well, though it`s not filled with rich colours as it is with pastels evoking an ancient period. The palette evokes a mood that fits in very well with smooth Japanese dialects and the samurai code of honour and tradition. The object of desire here, fresh-faced Sozaburo Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda), is incredibly striking too. Gorgeous visuals with little hint of anything defective.

Audio

Plain Dolby Digital 2.0 here, which is a shame since the film was made in 1999 and features some lovely music. There are scenes throughout that would have added so much more to the ambience were a 5.1 soundtrack employed so it feels like a wasted opportunity. What`s here however does work and sounds crisp and clear.

Features

There are English subtitles and these are well done, but this is it. There`s nothing else.

Conclusion

Homosexual samurai. Who would have thought it? Though it`s not something one thinks when mentioning the honourable profession, the militia are comprised of nothing but men, a testosterone fuelled playground with big swords. It`s not surprising then that this films concentrates on relationships between the men with their code of conduct and strict discipline and the object of desire in the newcomer. It`s interesting to see how Kano deals with the other men that take a fancy to him; he doesn`t resist and you begin to wonder who`s really in control here. He might not be as innocent as his fresh face dictates, but then his face is moreorless expressionless throughout the film. This is one of the problems, the expression of emotion or even lust. It seems very mechanical and hardly arouses, even in the sexual encounters. Even when men are found dead you hardly need to be Sherlock in figuring out whom the culprit is, though there`s little clue as to why it happens.

While the story has some interest, there are parts that lack exposition and as a result I feel there some parts of the story missing that might add to the overall film. We don`t get much insight into the mind of Kano except to see that he`s good in combat training and that his appearance belies his cunning by giving doubt to his commanders that he could do little wrong. There`s Takeshi`s Kitano`s narration throughout the film exploring his thoughts as he plays the odd scene over from different perspectives coupled with inter-title captions.

At the end of the day, it`s not one of those films that has a lot of replay value in its story, and the only reason I`ve watched it more than once is simply because Gohatto is visually indulgent; I love the look and feel of the ancient period depicted here though we hardly venture out of the encampment instead feasting on costumes and tradition. There`s little action here for samurai fans so don`t go buying it thinking there`s a feast of hardcore swordplay. Gohatto is not a bad film, just somewhat lacking in inspiration and storytelling, and with this it`s not so much a title to buy but to perhaps rent.