Broken Commandment

SEGAWA Ushimatsu (MAMIYA Shotaro) is a teacher at a rural school in early 20^th-century Japan. A keen humanist passionate about his job, he also hides a dangerous secret that may never be revealed: he is a burakumin, a member of Japan’s outcaste community.

Only by hiding his roots was Ushimatsu able to become a teacher, but now he is constantly tormented by his professional duty to lead by example and tell the truth. His feelings are intensified by his admiration for INOKO Rentaro (MASHIMA Hidekazu), a writer and activist who makes no secret of his burakumin status. Though Ushimatsu continues to keep his own secret for the sake of his social survival and romantic prospects, those around him begin to question his origins, and his position within the school soon comes under threat.

Adapted from literary master SHIMAZAKI Toson’s 1906 classic, Broken Commandment is a moving deep-dive into a hidden, taboo class system that still lingers in Japan today. A contemporary successor to previous adaptations by master directors like KINOSHITA Keisuke and ICHIKAWA Kon, this new version inherits its predecessors’ opposition to injustice and discrimination while critiquing the growing militarism at the turn of the century.

明治後期、小学校教師として暮らす瀬川は、被差別部落出身であることを周囲に知られないようにしている。しかし尊敬する作家で社会活動家の猪子の影響で、真実を語るべきか葛藤を深めていく。差別や不正への抵抗を描きつつ、20世紀初頭の日本の軍国主義への批判も織り込んだ社会ドラマ。これまで木下惠介、市川崑という巨匠が挑んだ島崎藤村の同名作品を映画化。

(Special thanks to Eikoku News Digest)