And so we come to the conclusion of the epic Samurai Trilogy with Duel at Ganryu Island.
Actually, out of the three movies, this probably has some of the least swordplay - the duel at the end is a mere 3-4 minutes - in history, this was two of the best known (and undefeated swordsmen) of their time. Musashi would go on to do other things, including fight in other battles with armies and help wipe out a Christian Community in the south - (dick move there, Mushshi)
In this film, Mushasi Miyamoto is challenged to a duel by the swordsman in the previous film, who was a famous swordsman in real life by the name of Sasaki Kojiro - In the movie, he challenges Mushasi who initially accepts, but then goes off for a year to live in a village to protect it from Bandits - at the end of the year, he returns north and sails off to Ganryu Island to have their duel. The actual history however, is a bit varied, contradictory, and complex
But this is cinema - and it wraps up a couple loose ends with the characters, and leaves you feeling like you've watched the formative years of Japan's greatest Samurai hero, even if again, as mentioned previously, it's a dramatized account based on a novel
To summarize, the Criterion extras are pretty sparse on this set - there are some 10 minute commentaries on each film about the real life events of each one by William Scott Thomas. There are some film essays, and the original trailers but that's about it - it seems like a lot of these early Criterion films only get the good extras upon rerelease in a new version as a lot of the old editions I'm finding only have things like color bars :) - but anyways, I own these blurays and will be hanging onto them
RB
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