How often do you get comic historical recreation? I mean, aside from Jojo Rabbit from last week. But seriously, this isn’t fabricated history. The story of Three Nobunagas (from what I gather) actually happened. Now, when is the last time you saw a film that was both historically accurate and comic?
It was a time of swords and sandals and warlords and honor. By my understanding of Japanese history, this could have been any time between the invention of the sword and the invention of the modern business suit. That’s only what? 5,000 years maybe? For the heck of it, I’m gonna call it year 1570. Yes, the year is definitely 1570 and warlord Nobunaga Oda just proved himself not so lordly at war. His army fleeing in several directions simultaneously, Nobunga is collected by his rival, Ujinori Kanbara (Masahiro Takashima). Oh, but check this out: Ujinori seems to have collected three men claiming to be the real chieftain Nobunagas.
Geez, Japan, where’s facial recognition when you need it?
Ujinori wants to kill Nobunaga and put his head on a spike either to display dominance or as a reminder that it’s kebabs for dinner tonight. However, with Three Nobunagas (Takahiro, Hayato Ichihara, Yoshinori Okada), he can’t do that for fear of looking silly. What, the “face” thing again? Let me offer a counter, U-san, kill ‘em all, march ‘em all around your block and tell anybody who asks, “This is what you get for even claiming to be Nobunagas, get me?”
Of course, this isn’t how comedies work. What follows is a little like how Akira Kurosawa might film a Marx brothers movie. There are of several amusing reveals, all along the order of “the REAL Nobunagas has a diagonal scar across his right shoulder blade” only to discover all three men have identical scars matching said description. Hmmm, this must be aggravating for U. Gee, dude, have you tried waterboarding? It’s equally as ineffective, but you might get them to stop smiling. Then they’ll just claim they’re all Spartacus.
I tell you this much, whomever Nobunagas is, he sucked at eluding capture.
Three Nobunagas was part goofy fun and part legitimate mystery, but kinda got bogged down when the film remembered that warlord history is rarely comic. I mean, when somebody gets executed it’s hard to get the cast to resume human Three Card Monty. As a result, I liked this film in parts, but the uneven tone threw me. Maybe I’d truly have enjoyed this if there were Four Nonubanagas, including Zeppo.
♪Yes, we have Nobunagas
We have three of him here today
He was shitty at hiding
And found by colliding
With three groups of soldiers, sensei
We have two extra impostors
Filling up our rosters,
So yes, we have Nobunagas
We have three of him here today♫
Not Rated, 106 Minutes
Director: Kei Watanabe
Writer: Kei Watanabe
Genre: The old shell game
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who can find Shogun whimsical
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Real life warlords, I imagine
♪ Parody Inspired by “Yes, We Have No Bananas”
