Cultural References
The film has a number of inside jokes and allusions. For example, the stolen sword that is at the center of the plot was a personal possession of Toshiro Mifune, the star of many of Akira Kurosawa's samurai films. One of Heishiro's closest friends is named Kurosawa.
Samurai Fiction's opening titles, in which samurai performing kata are silhouetted against a red background, were in turn spoofed in blue & black in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1. Also, Tarantino used Hotei's famous instrumental track "Shin Jingi Naki Tatakai" ("Battle Without Honor or Humanity" – the title of a classic yakuza movie by Kinji Fukasaku, a major influence on Tarantino) as background music for Kill Bill Vol. 1. Hotei played Kazamatsuri in Samurai Fiction and composed its soundtrack.
Read more about this topic: Samurai Fiction
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“The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition on a pedestal. It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the sources of cultural attitudes and values.... Because myth anchors the present in the past it is a sociological charter for a future society which is an exact replica of the present one.”
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