Sharaku (1995) Masahiro Shinoda, Hiroyuki Sanada, Furankî Sakai, Shima Iwashita

A crippled kabuki player is taken into a strolling company of itinerant actors. An influential publisher notices his honest, bold drawings, and nurtures him despite persecution and betrayal. The film explores the eternal relationship between artist and producer, and describes the emanicipation of a man who refuses to let himself become the plaything of power and money.

This is a film about a real person. Sanada Yukimura, who fought a war against Tokugawa Ieyeasu. A reign of terror clouds Japan as an execution and a deadly battle set the stage for the most spectacular revenge in Japanese history.
General Sanada, seeking revenge for the murder of his father and the lost battle of Osaka Castle, both conceived by the Shogun, devises a series of brilliant plans to thwart the Shogun's overwhelming strength. The battle explodes into death-defying action with the out-come determining the destiny of Japan. Some of the most explicit martial arts sequences ever filmed, a must see for anyone who loves action.

"The story is set during the "Tempo Reform" period of Mizuno Tadakuni (1793-1851). Lord Mizuno was an extreme moralist and tried to outlaw more or less anything pleasurable. His reasoning was that things like staged plays, posters of actors, popular novels, expensive meals, cakes, dolls, paintings, etc… were wastes of the country's resources and contributed to the decline of the national moral fiber. Not a very fun-loving guy.