After Twilight Samurai and Hidden Blade, the 77-year-old Japanese director Yoji Yamada has made another samurai movie on similar lines, marketed as the third in a "trilogy".

If Douglas Sirk made films about 19th-century samurai warriors, this might be the kind of picture he'd make. Shinnojo (Takuya Kimura) is a low-ranking samurai who is a food-taster to the Shogun. A poisoned dish turns him blind, a tragic fate that threatens his relationship with the beautiful, devoted wife Kayo (Rei Dan) who must nurse him.

A fervent, sweet-natured tragic romance.