Oedo gonin otoko / Five Men from Edo

Daisuke Ito: 大江戸五人男 / Oedo gonin otoko / Five Men from Edo (JP 1951). Utaemon Ichikawa (Jurozaemon Mizuno), Tsumasaburo Bando (Chobei Banzuin), Isuzu Yamada (Okane), Mieko Takamine (Okinu).

Daisuke Ito: 大江戸五人男 / Oedo gonin otoko / Five Men from Edo (JP 1951). Utaemon Ichikawa (Jurozaemon Mizuno), Mieko Takamine (Okinu).

大江戸五人男 / [Cinque uomini di Edo] / Cinq hommes d'Edo.

    JP 1951. PC: Shochiku. P: Sennosuke Tsukimori.

    D: Daisuke Ito. SC: Fuji Yahiro, Shin’ichi Yanagawa, Yoshikata Yoda. DP: Hideo Ishimoto. PD: Heikichi Kakui. M: Shiro Fukai. ED: Mitsuzo Miyata. C: Tsumasaburo Bando (Chobei Banzuin), Utaemon Ichikawa (Jurozaemon Mizuno), Isuzu Yamada (Okane), Mieko Takamine (Okinu), Ryunosuke Tsukigata (Sogoro), Teiji Takahasi (Shirai), Kokichi Takada (Takamisawa), Masao Mishima (Tonosuke Kondo), Eitaro Shindo (Gonbei).

    Language: Japanese

    132 min

    35 mm print from: National Film Archive of Japan

    Courtesy of: Shochiku.

    Subtitles in English and Japanese, n.c.

    Introduced by Francesco Sossai (Le città di pianura / The Last One for the Road), hosted by Gian Luca Farinelli.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2026: Shadows and Steel: The Cinema of Daisuke Ito.

    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 22 June 2026.

The title: it remains a mystery who the five men from Edo are.

Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström (Bologna 2026): "This masterpiece of jidai-geki was a prestige project commissioned to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Shochiku’s entrance into the world of film production, and as such, gathered three distinguished screenwriters and a roster of the company’s leading stars along with actors from the kabuki and shinpa stage. The two leads were played by Ito’s regular star Tsumasaburo Bando, in what turned out to be their last collaboration before the actor’s untimely death, and another celebrated and prolific jidai-geki actor, Utaemon Ichikawa (1907-1999), both of whose careers stretched back to the silent era. Ito was himself celebrating 30 years in the industry, having had his first screenplay accepted by Shochiku in 1921. The drama focuses on the conflict between the so-called hatamoto-yakko (street gangs composed of samurai and ronin) and machi-yakko (gangs of commoners). These groups were the precursors of modern yakuza, but Chobei Banzuiin (1622-57), the leader of the machi-yakko gang depicted in this film, had become a folk hero, credited with upholding the interests of the common people against the wealthy and powerful. Ito, however, also presents a not wholly unsympathetic portrait of Chobei’s antagonist, hatamoto Jurozaemon Mizuno, who is depicted in most tellings of this story as an unambiguous villain. Tadao Sato writes that “This represents one expression of the modern reinterpretation of the samurai class that Daisuke Ito had long pursued, and it also aligned with the postwar tendency in period drama to take a critical stance toward feudalism. At the same time, it was clearly a consideration in casting Utaemon Ichikawa – an actor who had always played the righteous hero – in this role. A major star must always be a hero; consequently, when two major stars are brought together in a prestige production, the drama cannot be structured as a simple confrontation between good and evil but must be arranged as an unavoidable clash between two noble heroes.” Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström

IMDb summary: "During the 17th Century bands of hatamoto, samurai vassals of the Tokugawa shogunate, were causing havoc in the new capital city of Edo. Opposing them was Banzui-in Chobei, whose sole aim was to save Edo from the hatamoto as their violent behavior threatened to pull apart the very fabric of society." —hambo77 for Internet Movie Database

Japanese Wikipedia (machine translation): "As a film commemorating the 30th anniversary of Shochiku Films, it was a large-scale production with an unprecedented budget and an all-star cast. The screenplay was written and produced by the "Kaguchi-kai," a group formed by screenwriters Fuji Yahiro, Shinichi Yanagawa, and Yoshikata Yoda. The story centers on the conflict between Chobei Banzuiin and Jurozaemon Mizuno, incorporating an episode from Kido Okamoto's *Bancho Sarayashiki*. It grossed 125.69 million yen, making it the second highest-grossing Japanese film of 1951."

AA: Daisuke Ito's Five Men from Edo is a magnificent spectacle full of fascinating detail and incident (the gift of the kites, the pageant of the concubines, the poor young ronin chasing the most expensive courtesan). Ito stages great crowd scenes and introduces spectacles inside the spectacle (the account of the kabuki world is fascinating). The direction of action is excellent, but even more compelling the movie is as a character study.

The true story on which the movie is based seems to be familiar, even legendary, in Japan, and watching the film and thinking about it later I don't know how much I am missing out. Much remains enigmatic but what I get is compelling in its own right.

Two big stars are cast in male leading roles: Utaemon Ichikawa as Jurozaemon Mizuno and Tsumasaburo Bando as Chobei Banzuin. Ichikawa dominates the first half while Bando grows in prominence during the latter part.

The hatamoto (samurai vassals) have degraded to a rogue band led by Mizuno. During their rampage, they storm a kabuki theatre and force themselves to the stalls, although box seats have been reserved for them. Here we meet Chobei for the first time, unarmed against the violent gang and taming them just by his stare and impeccable manners. 

Five Men from Edo is a true tragedy, not only a simple saga of good versus evil. Mizuno is a cruel leader and also a victim of his own role. In dire financial straits, in order to afford the costly business of managing the hatamoto, he needs to marry money and is about to wed a great daimyo's daughter. The daughter seems to be in the autism spectrum. 

Mizuno's true love, his concubine Okinu (Mieko Takamine) is desperate about the marriage plan. "I am just a fisherman's daughter. Even if you get married I could still be with you". For urgent financial needs, Mizuno decides to pawn the family heirloom, a priceless collection of plates donated by the first Shogun. 

The set of plates must be complete, and Mizuno asks Okinu to count them. But Okinu drops the case, counts the plates again to ensure that they are intact, and finds the last one broken. Because there is a witness, Mizuno executes Okinu immediately in cold blood. And all this although Okinu had dropped the case by accident, during their row, because Mizuno started to beat her.

To save face, Mizuno has killed his true love.

The tragedy becomes a subject for a new kabuki play, and Mizuno witnesses his disgrace enacted on the stage. Enraged, Mizuko kidnaps the onnagata (the male actor in female dress). An unarmed Chobei intervenes again, alone against all, and scores are settled in a formidable showdown.

The play within the play has a function similar with The Mouse Trap in Hamlet. Not in the sense of revealing the murderer, but in a parallel sense, revealing to the murderer the full horror and disgrace of what he has done. I am also thinking that the onnagata belonged not only to the kabuki stage but also to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

While the entire cast is great, Tsumasaburo Bando is in a league of his own. His character evokes Douglas Fairbanks in The Iron Mask. He is still a fearsome chanbara fighter, his spirit stronger than ever, but signs of fatigue start to appear.

In international cinema, Bando belongs to the class of Raimu, Heinrich George, Wallace Beery, Gino Cervi and Harry Baur. And many performers of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables. They are at their best in scenes of restraint, and the understatement only serves to emphasize the volcanic power underneath. They do not need to be handsome. A rugged appearance serves the cause better.

The visual quality of the print is mediocre, often good, not brilliant.