# The 47 Ronin (四十七人の刺客) (1994 film)
**The 47 Ronin** (四十七人の刺客, *Shijūshichinin no Shikaku*) is a 1994 Japanese jidaigeki (period drama) film directed by [Kon Ichikawa](https://www.edgepedia.org/kon-ichikawa), based on the bestselling novel by Shōichirō Ikemiya. It retells the Chūshingura story of the forty-seven Akō rōnin who avenged their master, but departs from the familiar version by treating the vendetta as a modern-style information war and economic war rather than a simple tale of loyalty and tears.[1](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/115966) • [2](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | October 22, 1994, Japan; 129 minutes; distributed by Toho[3](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=28253) |
| Production | Toho, Nippon Television, and [Suntory](https://www.edgepedia.org/suntory); a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Japanese cinema[1](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/115966) • [4](https://tv.apple.com/jp/movie/%E5%9B%9B%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%88%BA%E5%AE%A2/umc.cmc.4cil5l4fq2xf96k5iyol47y1f) |
| Director and writers | Directed by Kon Ichikawa; screenplay by Kaneo Ikegami, Yo Takeyama, and Ichikawa, from Ikemiya's novel[2](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/) |
| Lead cast | Ken Takakura as Ōishi Kuranosuke, Kiichi Nakajima as Irobe Matarashirō, Rie Miyazawa as Karu[5](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/103547) |
| Awards | Best Supporting Actor (Nakajima) at the 18th Japan Academy Prize (1995), plus awards for art direction, sound, and editing[2](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/) |
| Festival | Special Jury Prize, 1994 Tokyo International Film Festival[6](https://www.mediaocd.com/_files/ugd/7378d0_d0ad22eedf624fb4ab529156b81cc558.pdf) |
| Music and cinematography | Music by Kensaku Tanikawa; cinematography by Yukio Isohata[3](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=28253) |
## Spoilers
### Story and interpretation
The film opens in the spring of Genroku 14 (1701), when Asano Takumi-no-kami, lord of the Akō domain, drew his sword against Kira Uenosuke, the official guiding the imperial envoys' reception, inside [Edo Castle](https://www.edgepedia.org/edo-castle). Asano was ordered to commit seppuku the same day and his domain was confiscated, while Kira went unpunished. In the film's telling, this one-sided judgment, which ignored the era's rule that both parties in a quarrel be punished, was the scheme of [Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu](https://www.edgepedia.org/yanagisawa-yoshiyasu), the shogun's chief minister, and Irobe Matarashirō, the Edo house elder of the Uesugi family, who sought to protect their house's name and power.[1](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/115966) • [2](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/)
**A rationalist Chūshingura.** Ōishi Kuranosuke, the senior retainer of Akō, vows to raid Kira's mansion, but the film follows his preparation as a campaign of espionage, finance, and propaganda. He first manipulates the salt market to raise a vast war fund, then spreads the money through Edo to circulate rumors that Kira took bribes, stirring popular hostility toward Kira. He also lets rumors fly that the rōnin are about to strike, frightening the daimyo whose residences surround Kira's mansion inside the shogun's castle district, until the mansion was moved outside the castle's protected zone.[2](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/) • [7](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/152357) The film fills in what earlier versions left to tears and giri (duty) with rational explanation, and its central duel is the hidden battle of wits between Ōishi and Irobe, the brain on the Kira-Uesugi side.[1](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/115966) • [8](https://agua.jpn.org/film/c731.html)
The historical event behind the story is the night raid of January 30, 1703, when forty-six masterless samurai burst into Kira's Edo mansion, killed him, and carried his head to their former master's grave; the government allowed them to commit suicide rather than face execution.[9](https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1450_47ronin.htm)
## Production
The screenplay is credited to Kaneo Ikegami, the pen name under which the novelist Shōichirō Ikemiya had long worked as a screenwriter, together with Yo Takeyama and Ichikawa himself. Ikegami was known for scripts such as *13 Assassins*, and the film has been described as a new-model version of that film's format, a duel of two strategists, transplanted onto the Chūshingura story.[2](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/) • [5](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/103547)
For [Ken Takakura](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-takakura) it was his fourth period film and his first collaboration with Ichikawa; he plays Ōishi with the imposing presence noted by reviewers, in a return to period drama after a long absence.[1](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/115966) • [4](https://tv.apple.com/jp/movie/%E5%9B%9B%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%88%BA%E5%AE%A2/umc.cmc.4cil5l4fq2xf96k5iyol47y1f) The large supporting cast includes Shimmori Hisaya (Morishige Hisaya) as Chikusa Hyōbu, Kōji Ishizaka as Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, Kō Nishimura as Kira, and Ruriko Asaoka as Riku.[5](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/103547)
Toho produced the film as a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Japanese cinema.[4](https://tv.apple.com/jp/movie/%E5%9B%9B%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%88%BA%E5%AE%A2/umc.cmc.4cil5l4fq2xf96k5iyol47y1f)
## Reception
At the 18th Japan Academy Prize (1995), Kiichi Nakajima won Best Supporting Actor for his Irobe, and the film also received awards for art direction (Yōrō Muraki), sound (Teiichi Saitō and Tetsuya Ōhashi), and editing (Chizuko Osada), with further excellence awards for picture, director, screenplay, lead actor, music, and cinematography.[2](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/) Kinema Junpō's 1994 Best Ten also named Nakajima Best Supporting Actor.[10](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/award/kinejun/y1994.aspx) The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1994 Tokyo International Film Festival.[6](https://www.mediaocd.com/_files/ugd/7378d0_d0ad22eedf624fb4ab529156b81cc558.pdf)
Mark Schilling, a film critic for *The Japan Times*, described the film as having Ichikawa's characteristic visual flair, including spirited swordfight action in blood-flecked snow, but paced on the ponderous side.[11](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/12/05/films/shijushichinin-no-shikaku-47-ronin/)
## Context in the Chūshingura tradition
The Chūshingura story, after the eighteenth-century vendetta of the Akō rōnin, became one of Japan's most beloved cultural myths, retold in the 1748 puppet play *Kanadehon Chūshingura* and in dozens of films.[12](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371397.2024.2417008) • [9](https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1450_47ronin.htm) The historian Henry D. Smith II of Columbia University notes that 1994 saw the appearance of Chūshingura feature films for the first time since 1978, part of a continuing boom in Chūshingura books and interest through the early 1990s.[13](https://columbia.edu/~hds2/47ronin/47ronin_rev.htm) Ikemiya's novel, published under the same title, was praised for giving convincing modern explanations of the incident, from the cause of the sword attack to the raid's conclusion, and for its new portraits of Ōishi and of the antagonist Irobe.[14](https://www.jidai-show.net/bookguide/ikemiya_shoichiro/47nin_no_shikaku/)
## References
1. [四十七人の刺客 | 内容・スタッフ・キャスト・配信・作品情報, 映画ナタリー](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/115966)
2. [四十七人の刺客 : 作品情報・キャスト・あらすじ, 映画.com](https://secure.eiga.com/movie/36862/)
3. [四十七人の刺客, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=28253)
4. [四十七人の刺客, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/jp/movie/%E5%9B%9B%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%83%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%88%BA%E5%AE%A2/umc.cmc.4cil5l4fq2xf96k5iyol47y1f)
5. [四十七人の刺客 | 映画, WOWOWオンライン](https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/103547)
6. [Kon Ichikawa's 47 Ronin, AnimEigo press notes](https://www.mediaocd.com/_files/ugd/7378d0_d0ad22eedf624fb4ab529156b81cc558.pdf)
7. [四十七人の刺客 (1994), allcinema](https://www.allcinema.net/cinema/pdf/152357)
8. [忠臣蔵 四十七人の刺客](https://agua.jpn.org/film/c731.html)
9. [The Tale of the 47 Rônin, Asia for Educators, Columbia University](https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1450_47ronin.htm)
10. [キネマ旬報 ベスト・テン 1994年, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/sp/award/kinejun/y1994.aspx)
11. [Mark Schilling, 'Shijushichinin no Shikaku (47 Ronin)', The Japan Times](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/12/05/films/shijushichinin-no-shikaku-47-ronin/)
12. [The Legacy of Chūshingura: Cinematic Adaptations and Myth-Making in Japan, Japanese Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371397.2024.2417008)
13. [Henry D. Smith II, Chūshingura in the 1980s: Rethinking the Story of the 47 Ronin, Columbia University](https://columbia.edu/~hds2/47ronin/47ronin_rev.htm)
14. [四十七人の刺客 | 時代小説SHOW](https://www.jidai-show.net/bookguide/ikemiya_shoichiro/47nin_no_shikaku/)
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