It is a bad movie that has been produced as a poor propaganda to push Japanese nationalism and religion. The Cherry Bushido was made as a response to the current geopolitical situation in which the filmmakers have taken the opportunity to white-wash Japan’s bloody history. The plot involves one warrior who gets “chosen” by God to guard Japan from assaults in both the spiritual and physical realms. Cowards controlled by an evil demon are everybody else who does not agree with what the main characters believe in this book. China, Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam also pose serious security threats.
However, this idea of being above reproach harkens back to dangerous ethnocentrism where nothing good can ever be said about Japan at all.
Shizuka Yamato (Yoshiko Sengen) is a college student who cares for her country deeply. This results in missiles being launched into Japan by Republic of Sodorrah and its ongoing encroachment on its territorial waters. Shizuka sees footage on TV of politicians bumbling through it all during the news coverage of this crisis. Shizuka often wakes up from nightmares about nuclear devastation for Japan. She decides to write an article for her local newspaper about why she thinks Japan must defend herself. There should be no dependance upon America or any other foreign partner.
The samurai arts are Shizuka’s forte; she is highly proficient at it. In fact, she glided over challenges placed before many actors during mock auditions for movies that were never produced. Introduced to her is Satoshi Takayama (Hiroaki Tanaki), one of the leaders of the Japanese Salvation Conference organization by means of whom God acknowledges she is justified savior destined to save Japan and she would have to learn how to astral project along with leading JSC team deep into spirit world so they could defeat Great Demon Of Hades Among various masks worn by Japanese government today only for the Sodorrah missile launch.
The Cherry Bushido took me completely by surprise. What I saw was not what I expected: a martial arts fantasy featuring a female samurai. The nationalistic sentiment was one of the greatest letdowns of this film, besides religious extremism, poor action sequences and awful special effects. Also, that boring two-hour running time felt as if I were attending ideological seminar again.
Sodorrah is North Korea combined with China. On multiple maps in the movie Sodorrah looks like China. They build island outposts on islands which are not theirs and they violate rights of Pacific nations over their seas and even practice their mass jailings there.The missile launches resemble a plot from a North Korean movie with its nuclear attack against Japan’s landmasses by missiles. All these are serious security problems for Japan. Strengthening its defense makes sense for any country.
The Cherry Bushido does not mince words when it comes to dealing with those who disagree. These guys are shown as cowards controlled by an evil spirit of weakness who appease this supernatural being in his war against Japan; Shizuka and her JSC cohorts are marching through city streets shouting down fake media; It smacks of fascism right-wing rhetoric; There is no other way except their own path that all others go to becomemere weaklings before an impure aggressor– ‘But she’s just another one of those!’ – Screaming religious zealotry everywhere visually disturbing scenes that raise many questions.
However, my major problem was how Japanese World War II soldiers were represented in the story line. These were brave men who sacrificed themselves for their nation – heroes if you will, so honoring them would be appropriate even today. Yes you can honor your grandfathers’ memories but do not mention or apologize for some ghastly war crimes committed under Imperial Japanese Army Command at all ever- Rape of Nanking, sexual slavery of comfort women, and brutal treatment of POWs.
Japan is an amazing country with a great culture and people. It’s okay to want it to become stronger. The current events have shown time without number that the strong always oppress the weak ones. For Japanese patriotic film, Cherry Bushido does not serve its purpose at all. Particularly this one thing should be a big concern for everybody using religion in art or any other medium: religiophobic!
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