I meant to blog previously to mark the passing of one of the starts of that movie, Ken Takakura, who passed away last November, aged 84. RIP.
Apparently he was known affectionately as the Japan's "Clint Eastwood" and "Ken-san".
His passing means that the director and all of the lead actors have left us, with the single exception of Keiko Kishi, who played Eiko.
My (late) New Year's resolution, therefore, is to watch his second last movie which was called "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", was made in 2005, and was directed by the great Yimou Zhang.
Here is a fairly recent photo of the great actor:
