Sekigahara (NR)

synopsis

This sweeping epic delves into Japanese history's bloodiest battle, fought on a single day in 1600 with losses of 30,000 men and women. Sekigahara teems with an assortment of historical characters and enough Machiavellian maneuvering and exciting ninja action for an entire miniseries. But the focus is resolutely on the motives and strategies of the two towering figures whose forces would meet for the final showdown: Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu (a scheming Yakusho Koji). Harada's powerful, Kurosawa-like reinterpretation completely overturns the conventional understanding of their motives, transforming their fateful conflict into a war between justice and political opportunism.