Buffalo
Bushido (2009/Cinema Epoch DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound:
C Extras: C Feature: C+
After 15 years Davis a young man returns to his hometown. Trying to escape a troubling past he seeks out
his childhood friends, hoping to find some peace, but then everything has
changed... Davis
takes on a role of a return samurai, like a warrior weary of battle he only
wants to return home. His past continues
to haunt him, why he left in the first place, reality and delusion begins
to blur... where does his path lie?
Peter McGennis tells this story in Buffalo
Bushido.
This film is about a young man named Davis
who after 15 year of abuse, drugs and being institutionalized returns home to Buffalo. Davis
has acute schizophrenia and often imagines himself as warrior poet samurai, and
uses the samurai code to reason out his struggle against his past, odds and his
personal demons. He seeks out his
childhood friends, to find some sort of comfort and redemption, but soon his
past and his parole officer (who's almost just as crazy) comes chasing after
him. His only escape is through drugs
and the samurai code, Bushido.
I was amused by this film about a troubled young man who views his life through
a surreal world of a samurai, based on a loosely formed, romanticized ideal of
Bushido. Bushido is a code of conduct in
which Japanese samurai means "Way of the Warrior", its purpose is
teach how a warrior should act and behave, not unlike chivalry of the west, its true purpose
is was to teach loyalty and filial piety. The character Davis however uses it to reason and justify
his actions against any 'social injustice'. Early on I was able to tell, which was real
and which was the illusion that Davis
lived in. Extras include outtakes, still
gallery and commentary with the filmmaker.
- Ricky Chiang
