Heart of a Samurai

This 47 part series was the NHK taiga drama for 2009 and takes place during the period 1560-1620. This represents an incredibly turbulent time in Japanese history, set during the Warring States Period, the rise of Oda Nobunaga, the establishment of the Toyotomi rule and the Tokugawa ascendancy.As such there is a large amount of interesting background to this tale. The focus of the series is the Uesugi clan and, in particular, the relationship between the lord Uesugi Kagekatsu and his vassal Naoe Kanetsugu. The only problem is that the clan lord is painfully shy & hardly says a word while Kanetsugu spends a lot of his time crying. The Japanese seem to have a real fondness for these emotional tear jerkers with impassioned declarations of love and undying loyalty. This starts to get a bit annoying after a while but is a small gripe given the political and historical backdrop on offer. The emotional stuff is over-stressed as one of the main subjects of the series is the Uesugi concept of justice and their love for humanity. The series is well cast and features lots of the most notorious/popular characters of the period from Date Masamune to Sanada Yukimura. The second half of the series is really superb. This would have scored higher if it wasn't for all the crying. Brilliant series all the same.