The Blade and the Blossom: Unpacking Nagisa Oshima’s Gohatto (1999)
The story begins in 1865 Kyoto with the arrival of two new recruits to the Shinsengumi: the crude, capable ( Tadanobu Asano ) and the strikingly beautiful, androgynous Kano Sozaburo (Ryuhei Matsuda). Kano is not just a merchant’s son with a pretty face; he is a stone-cold killer who admits he joined the militia simply for the "license to kill". Gohatto(1999)
Gohatto is far more than a "gay samurai movie." It serves as an allegorical critique of modern Japanese society and any institution that demands the total repression of individual desire for the sake of the collective. The Blade and the Blossom: Unpacking Nagisa Oshima’s