MovieChat Forums > Mibu gishi den (2003) Discussion > Okay, so who was embezzling the money?

Okay, so who was embezzling the money?

posted 16 years ago by ranmel
3 replies | jump to latest

After all of that money and gold that the samurai sent home, his family should have been living like kings.

When we finally got to see their dilapidated house and ragged clothing, I wanted to kill the mail man. He must have been stealing like a demon!

On a lighter note...I just watched this yesterday for the first time, and the scene where Yoshimura charges the guns looked VERY familiar to me. I couldn't figure out why until the final credits. When I saw it came out in 2003 I remembered where I had seen that image.

I was in Japan in '03 and I swear that EVERY SINGLE commercial break on TV showed an ad for this film with Yoshi charging at the rifles. Mystery solved.

[–] vicky_lc2001-1 14 years ago

LOL! I swear to you I was pissed as hell as well! I was wondering when he would find out & slaughter the entire postal service from stealing from his wife & kids! Yet, this film never even addressed this, it's like they forgot that they put this scene in. This film needed a tighter script for sure!

OPEN YOUR EYES! dailymotion.com/video/xbi2hi_1993-chandler-molestation-extortion_news

[–] ranran-001 12 years ago

I was wondering the same thing, however I did note that the only scene where he was paid in cash was when he served as a second during a seppuku. I assume it was a one time payment.

Typically, from what I have read samurai were paid an allowance in rice, not money, so it was up to him to convert that to cash or whatever he so wanted. He was super grateful for the 40 bags of rice/yr allowance, so that we can assume his family wasn't starving, but they weren't rich either.

[–] Kawada_Kira 11 years ago

I'm assuming he was usually paid in koku, which is rice, as samurai were in this period. So most of the time he wasn't sending money per se back home, but rice. After setting aside enough rice to eat, what remained could be traded for other things but it's clear that even with this his family was still just getting by. It was just enough to keep them afloat, not enough to live well on.

"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."
- Voltaire