47 RONIN | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"47 RONIN"
(2013) (Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada) (PG-13)

QUICK TAKE:: Action: 47 leaderless samurai vow to get revenge on the treacherous warlord who caused their master's death.

PLOT:

In feudal Japan, Kai (KEANU REEVES) is what's commonly called a half-breed. The offspring of a British sailor and Japanese peasant, he was abandoned by his mother and then raised and taught by demons. Not wanting to be like them, he fled at the age of 13 only to be discovered by Lord Asano (MIN TANAKA) of the Ako province. He grew up alongside that lord's daughter, Mika (KO SHIBASAKI), but his half-breed status has prevented anything coming of their love, which also holds true for him ever becoming someone like Oishi (HIROYUKI SANADA), Lord Asano's top-ranking samurai. Unbeknownst to him, Kai has been teaching his 16-year-old son, Chikara (JIN AKANISHI), how to fight.

Lord Asano's rival from the Nagato province, Lord Kira (TADANOBU ASANO), has other plans for all of them. Conspiring with the shape-shifting Witch (RINKO KIKUCHI), he's going to undermine Asano during a visit by their supreme leader, Shogun Tsunayoshi (CARY-HIROYUKI TAGAWA). That results in Asano doing the only honorable thing of taking his own life, thus leaving Oishi and his other samurai as outcasts known as ronin. With the Shogun declaring that Mika can have one year of mourning before marrying Lord Kira, the other former samurai and Kai are banished from the land, all while Oishi is imprisoned for a year.

Now out, and despite being forbidden by the Shogun to avenge his master's death, Oishi decides to do just that, recruiting Kai and then reassembling his fellow ronin to defeat Lord Kira and return honor to their dead leader.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: If they're into martial arts films, fantasy style flicks and/or are fans of anyone in the cast (particularly Keanu Reeves), they might show some interest.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13: For intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, and thematic elements.

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