The Last Ronin

Sixteen years have passed since the forty seven ronin avenged their lord and then ended their own lives by ritual suicide. Kichiemon Terasaka, the only man to survive that affair, is charged with travelling the country to find the families of the dead samurai and to tell them the truth of what happened. Every door he knocks on reopens an account that was supposed to have been closed sixteen years earlier, and what a life spent keeping a promise amounts to becomes clear. In Shigemichi Sugita’s hundred and thirty three minute Japanese film, Koichi Sato plays Terasaka and Koji Yakusho plays Magozaemon Senoo, with Hitomi Miyauchi, Jun Fubuki and Kunie Tanaka in the cast. It opened on 18 December 2010 and looks at the well known Ako story from the side of those left behind.