{ "id": "epay60jp3b", "slug": "unforgiven-2013-film", "title": "Unforgiven (許されざる者) (2013 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families", "label": "Shared-title version families", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families.east-asian-families", "label": "East Asian shared-title families", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families.east-asian-families" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Unforgiven (許されざる者, Yurusarezaru Mono) is Lee Sang-il's 2013 Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood's 1992 western, starring Ken Watanabe as ex-swordsman Kamata Jubei in 1880 Hokkaido, released September 13, 2013, 135 minutes, Warner Bros. Japan.", "snippet": "Unforgiven (許されざる者, Yurusarezaru Mono) is Lee Sang-il's 2013 Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood's 1992 western, starring Ken Watanabe as ex-swordsman Kamata Jubei in 1880 Hokkaido, released September 13, 2013, 135 minutes, Warner Bros. Japan.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.version-families.east-asian-families", "markdown": "# Unforgiven (許されざる者) (2013 film)\n\n**Unforgiven** (許されざる者, *Yurusarezaru Mono*) is a 2013 Japanese drama directed by Lee Sang-il that remakes [Clint Eastwood](https://www.edgepedia.org/clint-eastwood)'s 1992 Academy Award-winning western *Unforgiven*, moving the story to Hokkaido in the early Meiji period. [Ken Watanabe](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-watanabe) stars as Kamata Jubei, a former shogunate swordsman once feared as \"Jubei the killer\" who has sworn never to draw his sword again, until poverty and a bounty draw him back into violence.[1](https://eiga.com/movie/77402/) • [2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Japanese release | September 13, 2013; 135 minutes; rated PG-12[3](https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/32602.html) |\n| Director and screenplay | Lee Sang-il, who wrote the adaptation from David Webb Peoples's original screenplay[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) |\n| Setting | Hokkaido in 1880 (Meiji 13), after the collapse of the Edo shogunate[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) |\n| Lead cast | Ken Watanabe (Kamata Jubei), Koichi Sato (Oishi Ichizo), Akira Emoto (Baba Kingo), Yuya Yagira (Goro Sawada)[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) • [4](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/160530) |\n| Production | Warner Bros. Pictures Japan (production and distribution); produced by Nikkatsu and Office Shirous[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) |\n| Music | Taro Iwashiro[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) |\n| Festivals | 2013 Venice International Film Festival (Out of Competition), Toronto (Special Presentation), Busan (Gala Presentation)[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) |\n| Critical reception | 94% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 16 reviews[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yurusarezaru_mono) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film is set in 1880, during the Meiji-era settlement of Hokkaido. Kamata Jubei, once a feared assassin who killed many loyalists on the shogunate's orders, disappeared after the shogunate's fall and lives in poverty in a remote village with the two children of his late wife.[1](https://eiga.com/movie/77402/) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/jp/%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB/xu-sarezaruzhe) His old comrade from the shogunate army, Baba Kingo, arrives with a money-making proposition: a bounty has been placed on the heads of settlers who slashed a prostitute.[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/jp/%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB/xu-sarezaruzhe) The women of the village have pledged 1,000 yen for the lives of the bandits who mutilated one of their own, a sum large enough to secure Jubei's children's future.[7](https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/japanese_cdn_cultural/2014/2014-03.pdf?nodisclaimer=1)\n\nJubei reluctantly joins Kingo, along with a brash young braggart named Goro. Standing in their way is Oishi Ichizo, the violent ruler of the town where the crime took place, who keeps order through brutality.[7](https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/japanese_cdn_cultural/2014/2014-03.pdf?nodisclaimer=1) • [3](https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/32602.html) When the man who swore never to draw his sword again takes it up, the confrontation becomes the film's violent climax.[3](https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/32602.html)\n\n## Adaptation from the 1992 western\n\nLee retained the spine of David Webb Peoples's screenplay, and reviewers noted that the plot and much of the dialogue follow the original closely. The transposition swaps six-shooters for samurai swords and the American frontier for Meiji-period Hokkaido, continuing the long tradition of exchange between westerns and Japanese samurai films that runs back to [Akira Kurosawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/akira-kurosawa) and [Sergio Leone](https://www.edgepedia.org/sergio-leone).[7](https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/japanese_cdn_cultural/2014/2014-03.pdf?nodisclaimer=1) • [8](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/unforgiven-film-review-japanese-remake-of-clint-eastwood-s-classic-is-missing-crucial-ingredient-9158495.html)\n\n**Lee's own additions.** The most distinctive change is a subplot concerning Japan's indigenous [Ainu people](https://www.edgepedia.org/ainu-people), including a young man of half-Ainu heritage, which ties the remake to the western tradition of depicting aboriginal peoples displaced by so-called civilizing forces. Critics also identified the fallen samurai, the Ainu, and the prostitutes as groups through which the film touches on structures of discrimination and what one reviewer called \"history that had not been depicted.\" Lee also refashioned the climactic standoff, conceiving a fiery new finale.[7](https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/japanese_cdn_cultural/2014/2014-03.pdf?nodisclaimer=1) • [9](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0011080/review)\n\nKoichi Sato plays the role corresponding to [Gene Hackman](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-hackman)'s brutal sheriff in the original; the British critic Geoffrey Macnab, a film scholar and longtime reviewer for *The Independent*, wrote that Sato \"excels\" as the cigar-chewing lawman ready to humiliate any outlaw who enters his town.[8](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/unforgiven-film-review-japanese-remake-of-clint-eastwood-s-classic-is-missing-crucial-ingredient-9158495.html)\n\n## Production and release\n\nThe film was produced by Nikkatsu and Office Shirous with Warner Bros. Pictures Japan as both production company and distributor.[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) Norimichi Kasamatsu served as cinematographer, Tsuyoshi Imai as editor, and Taro Iwashiro, the composer of *Red Cliff*, wrote the score.[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) It was shot in [CinemaScope](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinemascope) on 35mm with a Linear PCM 5.1ch soundtrack, and carried a PG-12 rating in Japan.[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) • [3](https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/32602.html)\n\nAfter its September 13, 2013 Japanese release, the film screened at the 2013 Venice International Film Festival out of competition, at the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) in the Special Presentation section, and at the Busan International Film Festival in Gala Presentation.[2](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894) • [7](https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/japanese_cdn_cultural/2014/2014-03.pdf?nodisclaimer=1)\n\n## Reception\n\nOn Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 94% Tomatometer score from 16 reviews and a 76% audience score from more than 250 ratings.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yurusarezaru_mono) On the Japanese database Kinenote it averaged 69.3 points from 580 user ratings.[10](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=71272) [Mark Kermode](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-kermode) of *The Observer* gave it 3 of 5 stars, writing that Lee's version \"offers enough grand spectacle and historical intrigue to carve its own space in the international multiplexes.\"[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yurusarezaru_mono)\n\nJapanese critics were broadly positive while noting the remake's fidelity to the original. Reviewers on Cinema Today praised the Hokkaido locations, Watanabe's performance, and the way the film uses the Edo-to-Meiji transition to stand as a Japanese period drama about sin and atonement, while some found the film stiff in places because it traces the original so closely.[9](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0011080/review) The *Independent* review judged the film \"remarkably faithful\" to Eastwood's version and singled out the snowy-forest cinematography, though it concluded that the remake lacked Eastwood's own screen presence in the lead role.[8](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/unforgiven-film-review-japanese-remake-of-clint-eastwood-s-classic-is-missing-crucial-ingredient-9158495.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [許されざる者 (2013) 解説・あらすじ, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/77402/)\n2. [Unforgiven (許されざる者), Japanese Film Database (JFDB)](https://jfdb.jp/en/title/3894)\n3. [許されざる者 | 映画 | 日活](https://www.nikkatsu.com/movie/32602.html)\n4. [許されざる者 | あらすじ・スタッフ・キャスト, 映画ナタリー](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/160530)\n5. [Unforgiven (2013), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yurusarezaru_mono)\n6. [許されざる者 (2013), JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/jp/%E6%98%A0%E7%94%BB/xu-sarezaruzhe)\n7. [March Movie: Unforgiven, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre newsletter (March 2014)](https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/japanese_cdn_cultural/2014/2014-03.pdf?nodisclaimer=1)\n8. [Unforgiven, film review, The Independent (Geoffrey Macnab, 27 February 2014)](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/unforgiven-film-review-japanese-remake-of-clint-eastwood-s-classic-is-missing-crucial-ingredient-9158495.html)\n9. [許されざる者 (2013)：映画短評, シネマトゥデイ](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0011080/review)\n10. [許されざる者(2013) 作品情報・レビュー, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=71272)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Shared-title version families › East Asian shared-title families*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/unforgiven-2013-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/unforgiven-2013-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Unforgiven (許されざる者) (2013 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/unforgiven-2013-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Unforgiven (許されざる者) (2013 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/unforgiven-2013-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/unforgiven-2013-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/unforgiven-2013-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Unforgiven (許されざる者) (2013 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/unforgiven-2013-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Unforgiven is Lee Sang-il's 2013 Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood's 1992 western, starring Ken Watanabe as ex-swordsman Kamata Jubei in 1880 Hokkaido, released September 13, 2013, 135 minutes, Warner Bros." }