Taboo (1999 film)

Taboo (御法度) (1999) is a Japanese film directed by Nagisa Oshima. It shows life in a samurai training school during the bakumatsu period, the end of the samurai era in the mid-19th century, specifically concentrating on the issue of homosexuality in the shudo tradition in the partially-closed environment.

Plot summary
At the start of the movie, the young and handsome Sozaburo Kano is admitted to the Shinsengumi (新撰組), an elite samurai police group led by Isami Kondo that seeks to defend the shogunate against reformist forces. He is a very skilled swordsman, but it is his appearance that makes many of the others in the (strictly male) group, both students and superiors, attracted to him, creating tension within the group of people vying for Kano's attention.

Cast

 * Takeshi Kitano - Vice-Commander Hijikata Toshizo
 * Ryuhei Matsuda - Kano Sozaburo
 * Shinji Takeda - Captain Okita Sōji
 * Tadanobu Asano - Hyozo Tashiro
 * Yoichi Sai - Commander Kondo Isami
 * Koji Matoba - Sugano Heibei
 * Masa Tomizu - Inspector Yamazaki Susumu
 * Masato Ibu - Military Advisor Ito Koshitaro