Goemon

Goemon

As a child, Ishikawa Goemon's (Yosuke Eguchi) entire family was assassinated for political reasons. His mother (Ryo) sent Goemon away for safety minutes before he witnessed her death. Running away with his caretaker, they were attacked by bandits but he was saved by the great Nobunaga Oda (Hashinosuk� Nakamura). Goemon followed Nobunaga and Hattori Hanzo (Susumu Terajima) was assigned to train him in the ways of the shinobi (ninja) along with his martial brother, Saizo (Takao Osawa).

After many years of training, Goemon was assigned to protect Oda's niece, Princess Chacha (Ryoko Hirosue). They developed feelings for each other, but status differences kept them apart and eventually she departed. Before leaving, Chacha gave Goemon her favourite fan as a memento. Oda rewarded Goemon's faithful protection of Chacha by giving him his double-bladed sword. Meanwhile, Oda's generals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Eiji Okuda) and Akechi Mitsuhide (Kazuaki Kiriya), conspired to kill Nobunaga. The two made a secret written covenant, placing their signatures onto a black scroll. Mitsuhide, not trusting Hideyoshi, had his men hide the contract. After assassinating Nobunaga, Hideyoshi betrayed and killed Mitsuhide, took credit for slaying Nobunaga's killer and became the next ruler of Japan. With Nobunaga dead, the two young ninjas parted ways for different pursuits: Saizo hopes to be elevated to Samurai status and chose to remain in service to Nobunaga house, but Goemon chose to leave and be free. As a parting gift, Goemon broke his double-bladed sword in two and gave one-half to Saizo.

Years later, Goemon became a master thief and something of a Robin Hood. Sarutobi Sasuke (Gori), an inexperienced bounty hunter, tried to arrest Goemon, but failed and became his private servant instead. During a festival, Goemon infiltrated and robbed a treasure repository that contained a mysterious box with foreign writing on it. Ishida Mitsunari (Jun Kaname), a high-ranking samurai under Lord Hideyoshi, tried to retrieve this box to destroy it, but Goemon escaped with it, leaving behind only his calling card: a red sticker with the Japanese character "Go" on it. Goemon, unaware of the value of the box, threw it away and distributed the gold to the poor. A young pick-pocket, Koheita, picked up the mysterious box and kept it as a memento. The following day, Goemon learned of the box's value from Sasuke. Intrigued by the box, Goemon returned to the city to find it. Searching around the slums for the box, Goemon heard a scream and finds Koheita and his mother, who had just been callously murdered by cruel and petty local samurai. Goemon saved Koheita and retrieved the box, but also took Koheita under his wing.

Saizo and his ninja squad, working for Mitsunari, appeared and confronted Goemon. Refusing to turn over the box, Goemon fled and was pursued by Saizo's ninjas. Goemon evaded all of his pursuers except Saizo, who remained close behind him. In a showdown between the former brothers, Saizo informed him that the box Goemon carried was referred to as a "Pandora's Box" by foreigners, and the two engaged in a duel. After Goemon was overpowered and about to be killed by Saizo, Hattori Hanzo appeared and intervened, causing Saizo to withdraw. After returning to the city, Goemon examined the "empty box" and discovered a map to a mysterious treasure. Following the map, Goemon and Sasuke were led to the destroyed Buddha statue where Akechi Mitsuhide had hidden his contract with Hideyoshi. Goemon became angry once he learned that Hideyoshi was involved with Nobunaga's death. Hattori Hanzo then reappeared, under the command of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Masato Ibu). Hanzo offered his old student a bag of gold for the contract, which Goemon readily agrees to. Seeking vengeance for his murdered lord, Goemon infiltrated Lord Hideyoshi's castle, where he killed Lord Hideyoshi and discovered Princess Chacha. Startled by another person entering, Goemon hid himself in the ceiling of Chacha's room, losing Chacha's fan as he did so. To Goemon's surprise, the real Hideyoshi entered the room. Goemon had only killed his fake double. Suddenly, one of Lord Hideyoshi's guards discovered Goemon and shot him in the chest, blowing him out of the castle and into the moat. Later, Goemon was secretly rescued and recovered by Saizo.

Goemon was then contacted by Hanzo, who took him to a waterfall to meet Chacha. The princess had come to bid him farewell and returned the fan as she had reluctantly agreed to become Hideyoshi's concubine. Afterwards, Lord Tokugawa arrived to ask Goemon to assassinate Hideyoshi in order to save Chacha and the country. Elsewhere, Lord Mitsunari offered Saizo samurai status in return for killing Lord Hideyoshi. Goemon and Lord Tokugawa crafted a plan to assassinate Lord Hideyoshi during a celebration on his royal boat, but upon receiving his secret signal, Goemon changed his mind and did not complete the plan. Moments later, all of Lord Hideyoshi's escort ships were destroyed by explosives set by Saizo and his team; they captured Lord Hideyoshi and tried to assassinate him by hanging him from the ship's mast with a steel chain. Lord Mitsunari, believing Lord Hideyoshi to be dead, then turned on Saizo and shot him. However, Lord Hideyoshi survived the assassination attempt and Saizo survived the gunshot wound. Lord Hideyoshi, unaware of Lord Mitsunari's betrayal, interrogated Saizo and threatened to kill Saizo's family unless he revealed who hired him.

Directed by : Kazuaki Kiriya

Produced by : Kazuaki Kiriya & Takashige Ichise

Written by :Kazuaki Kiriya & Tetsur� Takita

Starring : Yosuke Eguchi & Takao Osawa & Ryoko Hirosue

Music by :Akihiko Matsumoto

Cinematography : Kazuaki Kiriya

Editing by : Kazuaki Kiriya & Chisako Yokoyama

Release date : May 1, 2009

Running time : 128 minutes

Country : Japan

Language : Japanese

Genres : Action, Drama

Download : Goemon - Movie

Download : Subtitle [ASS/SRT]

Goemon