is a black-and-white two-part jidaigeki Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, adapted from a play by Seika Mayama. The first part was released on December 1, 1941, with the second part being released on February 11 of the following year. The film depicts the legendary forty-seven Ronin and their plot to avenge the death of their lord, Asano Naganori, by killing Kira Yoshinaka, a shogunate official responsible for Asano being forced to commit seppuku.

Plot

The plot revolves around the consequences of an attack by Lord Asano Naganori on Lord Kira Yoshinaka, an influential court official in the Tokugawa Shogunate. After overhearing Kira insult him in public, Asano strikes Kira with a sword in the corridors of Edo Castle, but succeeds only in wounding him. As attacking a Shogunate official is a grave offense, Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi sentences Asano to commit seppuku and issues an edict stripping the Asano Clan of their lands and wealth. Kira, meanwhile, is not punished by the Shogun because, it is thought, of family connections. As a result of the Shogun's judgement, all samurai loyal to the Asano Clan become rōnin while the late Lord Asano's family is ruined. Many of the rōnin wish to seek revenge against Kira for the dishonor of their Lord, but their leader, Ōishi Kuranosuke, convinces them to wait while he first petitions the Shogun to restore the Asano Clan. When the Shogun refuses his request, Ōishi and the other forty-six rōnin begin planning their revenge. But because Kira has surrounded himself with warriors in his residence, Ōishi first disarms suspicion by posing as a drunkard and womanizer, to his own dishonor, and goes to the length of divorcing his wife.