Chushingura, Heaven Scroll, Earth Scroll 1938

The film has two parts, the first (Heaven Scroll) directed by Masahiro Makino and the second (Earth Scroll) directed by Tomiyasu Ikeda. The two parts have different crew but pretty much the same cast. The film is a big budget prestige film produced by Nikkatsu in 1938. In 1937, after Japanese film industry's transition to sound, most independent studios founded by those famous jidaigeki superstars dissolved (including Bantsuma's, Chiezo Kataoka's as well as Kanjuro Arashi's) and they all joined Nikkatsu (on the other hand, Denjiro Okochi was lured away from Nikkatsu by PCL/Toho). So the next year, Nikkatsu made this prestige film starring four of the industry's biggest jidaigeki stars. And the subject is naturally Chushingura.