Gohatto (Taboo; 1999 )

This movie really hooked me up to the very last end. I was stuck on it like glue. I thought it was just another samurai film but it was more than I thought it should. It shows what it was in a life of a Shinsen-gumi samurai, the mastery, the art, the bushido--everything, although there is some oddity in it. It is just so hard to imagine, or maybe I was not used to it, that no matter how masculine those samurais are, they would still fall and kill for a female-looking guy!




This is really an exceptional film. With a hot samurai, real-looking intense fighting scenes and a unique love story, I am giving it a 9.5/10. I am not recommending it for homophobes because they might find this very disturbing.




I like the character Kano. He is a beautiful samurai. Beautiful meaning a perfect samurai, well--almost. I love a cold, heartless and beautiful samurai with no hesitations to kill which is exactly what Kano is. He also reminds me of Sojiro Seta (also my favorite) from Samurai X who smiles like the warmth of the sun outside but a cold bloody heartless killer in the inside.



Man, I love those looong tied locks. Ryuhei Matsuda's tempting me. (Congratulations for his wedding and for his upcoming baby. ^__^)