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<font size="2"><p>DVD Review
<font size="4"><br>The 47 Ronin</font>
<br>by Gary Morris</font>
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<p><i><font size="6" color="#FFFFFF"><b>G</b></font>enroku Chushingura</i>, also known as <i>The Forty-Seven Ronin of the Genroku Era</i>, or in the case of Kenji Mizoguchi’s two-part, 220-minute adaptation, <i>The Loyal Forty-Seven Ronin</i> (1941-42), is one of Japan’s great historical legends. Retold in countless theatrical versions and perhaps several dozen films, <i>Ronin</i> tells the story of a band of masterless samurai (ronin) who exact revenge for the death of their beloved master and then commit hara-kiri. In her book <i>Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation 1945-1952</i>, Kyoko Hirano notes, "It is said that whenever a film studio fell into financial distress, it would produce a film based on this story, for a guaranteed hit."
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