Samurai 2

Ok, folks I have just finished watching Samurai 2: Duel at Ichioji Temple and I have one thing to say:
TURN UP THE BRIGHTNESS ON YOUR TV.  Seriously, the lighting in some of the most climactic and crucial fight scenes is absolutely ATROCIOUS. I understand that Samurai like to fight it out at either dusk or dawn but come on get some lights on that scene.

Other than this glaring problem the movie was great. Mifune is a great samurai yet again; probably because he is so good at looking so damn pissed off.  Ok maybe there is more to it than that, he can actually show a pretty solid range of emotions and he's got that really deep japanese badass voice that a good samurai actor needs to have. Of course the romantic subplot is developed and becomes more complex and the characters that were all seperated througout the first movie start to come back together. Also some of the stylistic signatures that we expect to see in a samurai film start to make an appearance such as duels consisting of a couple feints and then one decisive slice; and of true sword technique being displayed instead of just raw slashing and fighting.  In all this is a great movie, I will probably have to watch it again though because the darkness of some of the shots ruined a few scenes for me.