Yet another movie idea...
Making it all up as I go along. I have a modern samurai tale with a female lead, but I'm trying to come up with a background story for it. I don't know if I should set the story in ancient times, or current day, and whether it should be Japanese or not. All of my imagery has been inspired by Feist's "When I was a young girl" which might be hard to believe. Listen to it if you can. READ IT!Background story take 1
Setting: Edo, Japan Year 1750
There once was a man named Toshiro who belonged to the Aoi (blue) clan. He lived his life like the rest of the samurai, by guarding his master Lord Hasigawa's castle. He was an honorable man who spent his afternoons walking through the meadows alongside the village. The other men respected him and regarded him as one of the best fighters in the clan. His rank was high and he has been loyal throughout his tenure. Everyone expected him to be the next successor to Hasigawa.
Toshiro was sent on a mission to a neighboring town, in order to force the Niiro (red) clan to surrender themselves to the Aoi clan. Though the niiro clan was not as large in number as the aoi clan, they were a more peaceful group. They were challenged by the Aoi clan three months prior, and two of their samurai were defeated. Toshiro knew his master was rather bold and extremely rude to make such a gesture, but he went nonetheless.
He expected the clan to attack upon his arrival, but to his suprise they all sat on the floor and bowed as he entered the main hallway of the castle. Seated at the front was Lord Shimura, a name heard across the land for his generosity and for the person to the right of him, his daughter. She was beautiful. So much so that Toshiro became nervous while looking at her. He studdered while handing Shimura the scroll from Lord Hasigawa.
While staying at this castle, Toshiro was treated as a friend. He feasted with the people he was told to be his enemies. One night while looking up at the stars, Shimura's daughter came up behind him and said "How beautiful the stars look, reflected in your eyes" Toshiro was taken back by this statement. Kaoru may have looked as innocent as a kitten, but she was as fierce and direct as a tiger. This was the first of many nights they spent in eachother's company.
Toshiro and Kaoru had fallen in love during these two weeks together. The samurai who had been loyal to the Aoi clan was now having second thoughts about ever returning to them. He stayed with the niiro clan and was welcomed. Two months had passed, and during this time Toshiro and Kaoru got married.
One Autumn afternoon, three samurai from the Aoi clan came to the niiro castle and demanded to see Toshiro. He was aware of what he had done, and knew he had to face the consequences. He was ordered to commit Harakiri (ritual suicide). Before leaving, he was able to spend the night with Kaoru where she revealed that she was pregnant. Toshiro was hopeful, yet heartbroken by this news. "Keep it a secret" he said to her, to which she agreed. He went on to say "allow him to learn the code of a samurai, and teach him of my death by the Aoi clan when he is ready" He sworn never to speak another word after this. The next morning he commited harakiri without any resistance and the niiro clan was taken over by the aoi clan.
Kaoru and her future child escaped with her father and the highest ranking samurai. They all intended to follow the last words of the dying Toshiro and raise his child to avenge his death. What none of them expected, was that they gave birth to a daughter...
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Okay that took about 30 minutes to write. It seems interesting enough, and not too complicated. It's supposed to be a simple revenge story in the same fashion as Kill Bill (I even left the ending in sort of the same way as Vol. 1). I still want to set it in present day, but I don't know how well I could transfer that to our time. I basically want to set up a story that shows some girl raised from birth as an assasin who kicks major ass, and later on hears of her father's death and wants to seek revenge. I see so much cool stuff going into this and it gets me very excited. I still can't believe the whole idea was inspired by listening to folk, rock, alternative, and metal music though. A period film with modern music in it, how would that go over?
Including:
Modest Mouse- I came as a rat
Wintersleep- Orca
Feist- When I was a young girl
Linkin Park- Nobody's listening
Queens of the Stone Age- Long slow goodbye
Any feedback of any kind will be appreciated. Even ideas for music that would make for good fight scenes and action sequences posted by psychobabbler @ 2:35 AM
