This 1932 adaptation is the earliest sound version of the ever-popular and much-filmed Chushingura story of the loyal 47 retainers who avenged their feudal lord after he was obliged to commit hara-kiri due to the machinations of a villainous courtier. As the first sound version of the classic narrative, the film was something of an event, and employed a stellar cast, who give a roster of memorable performances. Director Teinosuke Kinugasa was primarily a specialist in jidai-geki (period films), such as the internationally celebrated Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953), and although he is now most famous as the maker of the avant-garde silent films A Page of Madness (Kurutta ichipeji, 1926) and Crossroads (Jujiro, 1928), Chushingura is in fact more typical of his output than those experimental works. The film ranked third in that year’s Kinema Junpo critics’ poll, and Joseph Anderson and Donald Richie noted that 'not only the sound but the quick cutting was admired by many critics.
as Kuranosuke Ôishi
as Asano Takuminokami and Yoshida Sawaemon (as Chôjirô Hayashi)
as Awajinokami Wakisaka / Gorobei Kakimi
as Shinzaemon Katsuta
as Sezaemon Oishi
as Kozukenosuke Kira
as Yanagisawa
as Kurobee Ōno
as Hyobu
as Сhikara Ôishi
as Heihachiro Kobayashi
as Yahee Horibe
as Gon'uemon Ōkubo
as Miyauchi Saito
as Chotaro Kasahara
as Tsunanori Uesugi
as Kato
as Emoshichi Yatou
as Koyama
as Jūbee Ōtake
as Gengoemon Kataoka
as Uesugi Family Elder
as Kazuemon Fuwa
as Genzaemon Tonomura
as Tanuki
as Gengo Ôtaka
as Kajikawa
as Yuka
as Genshirō Shindō
as servant Ono
as Yasube Horibe
as Hachirō
as Inokō
as servant
as Kajimura
as Kozo Ikariko
as prince Edokko
as boss of the children (as Tokkan Kozô)
as Daisaburō
as Yōzen'in
as Yae
as Orui
as Oriku
as Nui, Fuwa's wife
as Orui's mother
as Katsuta's Wife Hikari
as Nobuka Geigi
as Kuni