Guide to Inagaki's Film Version of Chushingura ("The Treasury of Loyal Retainers" or "The 47 Samurai")

(this comes from http://faculty.vassar.edu/brvannor/AS105/chushingura.html but I've added quotations from the subtitles... the synopsis is Bryan Van Norden's)

Part II: Snow

24. Several laborers are killed when a stone they are carrying to a noble's garden falls on them. [Tawaraboshi is not in service to a new lord: They won't pay enough...

25. "An Edo Carpenter": (a) A carpenter discusses how he has agreed to supervise modifications to the mansion of Lord Kira, including adding a secret passageway and hiding places. While this is happening, a rice delivery man who is actually the retainer Okano shows up and listens. He then asks the carpenter's sister out on a date. (b) We cut suddenly to Lord Kira molesting a younger woman. (c) It turns out that the woman is a spy for Asano's retainers.

A woman can not do battle, so I wish to be of use this way
26. "Okano Proposes": (a) On a walk by the river, Okano tells the carpenter's sister that he is the son of a samurai, but gave it up because it was too demanding.
...I hated it from childhood. Always duty, loyalty... I wanted freedom, so I became a commoner
He proposes to her. (b) Meanwhile, the carpenter is talking to two other men who both want to propose to his sister. The sister returns and, to the brother's delight, announces that she and the rice delivery man are in love and want to get married. (c) Okano expresses to his comrades his sadness at having to deceive the girl. (d) We see another retainer who has fallen in love with a prostitute.

27. "Kira's Public Appearance": Kira is carried through town in a sedan chair. Some of the retainers try to kill him, but they are stopped by other retainers before they are discovered.
You got carried away, but remember that we're all in this together. We're not just after Kira's head... Do not act on impulse
28. "After the Plans": (a) Okano's fiancee tells her brother, the carpenter, that she wants to borrow the plans to Lord Kira's mansion. The carpenter guesses that she wants to use them to impress the rice delivery man's parents, who don't want their son to marry beneath him. He tells her that she can't have them, but then he leaves the key to the drawer holding the plans on the floor in front of her. (b) Asano's men hear a rumor that Tawaraboshi has joined Uesugi's men (see 18, above). He is so skilled a fighter that he must be killed before they launch their attack. Horibe is assigned the task, even though he was Tawaroboshi's drinking buddy (see 7, above).

29. "Duel with Tawaraboshi": Horibe attacks Tawaraboshi, but his heart is not in it, and they break off the fight. Tawaraboshi explains that he has not really joined Uesugi's men. He hints that he wants to join Horibe and the rest of Asano's men, and asks to be told, indirectly, when the time comes for the attack.
I knew the rumor would bring you to my school to fight... if you take a long trip, or a new lord, stop by my school.
30. "Imperial Envoy: Mitsutada Obana": (a) In order to sneak into Edo (?), Oishi disguises himself as an imperial envoy, and passes through the same inn that the actual envoys had passed through ealier in the movie (see 2, above). The innkeeper realizes that something is amiss when the inventory the envoy is required to submit turns out to be blank. Noticing the Asano family crest on one of their cases, the innkeeper decides to help them and keep their secret. (b) A local official demands to see the envoys.
If he's an imposter, you'll be an accomplice
The innkeeper refuses, explaining that the envoys have too high a status to see him, since they are on an official mission on behalf of the prince. As evidence, he produces the calligraphy given to him by the earlier envoys, which he says was written for the envoys by the prince himself.
Show due respect. Bow! The Prince's own handwriting.
The bluff works. (c) The innkeeper gives Oishi the calligraphy in case he needs it to bluff his way past a later guardpost.

31. "Studying the Plans": (a) We see some European guests visiting the city (Dutchmen, who were the only foreigners allowed in Japan for a long period of time in the Tokugawa Shogunate). Oishi's son wonders what they would think about the plans of Asano's retainers. Oishi finds it interesting that younger people like his son care what foreigners think. (b) Kira's neighbors complain about his rudeness in not keeping a more quiet household.
I can't complain to men of high standing.... All Edo is angry.
32. "Farewell to Lady Asano": (a) Oishi visits Lady Asano for what will be the last time. He eyes suspiciously one of Lady Asano's attendants (presumably because he does not recognize her). He tells her that he and the others plan to give up being samurai and take up farming.
It's not just me. We've all been masterless samurai too long. We're tired of being so poor that we're nearly starving. But no lord will employ us. So I've decided to settle down in Yamashina and become a farmer... Some of the men say we should go and avenge our lord. But it's only the voice of their desperation. Or their miserable attempt to succeed by attracting attention.
Lady Asano expresses her disgust with them,
How could your samurai spirit allow you to [retire]? ...Till today I believed there were still true samurai among you. That is why I lived on in a world that holds no meaning for me.
and denies Oishi the right to pay his respects at the shrine of Lord Asano.
The prayers of a person like you would not please our late lord.
(b) On the way out, another of Lady Asano's attendants, who is also the sister of one of the retainers, asks Oishi to tell her brother that she disowns him for giving up.
Tell him I can no longer call him my brother.
Oishi gives her what he says are "keepsakes of Lord Asano" that he has no right to keep, now that he is a mere farmer. He asks her to hold on to them until tomorrow, when Lady Asano is in a better frame of mind.
To have doubts until the moment we die... perhaps that's just human...
33. "Time to Get Ready": (a) Okano's fiancee shows up at the rice shop, asking when Okano will return. She is told that he is gone for good, and she leaves heartbroken. (b) Oishi's son worries to his father that he has only managed to say things that are "ordinary" in his farewell letter to his mother, but Oishi tells his son that the does not have to say more.
We are not dying over a personal grievance, and to forgive her undutiful son for leaving this world before her...
(c) The retainer who is in love with the prostitute (see 26, above) tells her what he and his comrades are about to do, saying that he did not want to die having lied to her. She thanks him deeply for his honestly, and asks him to stay for one drink. (d) Horibe finds Tawaraboshi in a bar, and hints that tonight is the night.

34. "The Samurai Gather": (a) The samurai start to gather at the rice shop, and concern develops that some of the original group seem to be missing. Will those who have not shown up inform on those who have gathered to carry out the plan? (b) One member of the group is in bed, almost too sick to walk. The woman attending him cannot understand why he is so upset about an illness that will go away in a week or so. (He later dies while dragging himself through the snow to try and join them.)

35. "Dropouts": While the other samurai anxiously wait for the others to show up, someone throws a note through the door. It is from some of the others, who say that they will not come, but promise not to inform on them. The samurai discuss whether it is more painful to refuse or to come with them.
They're afraid to die. Is that courage?
It's a kind of courage. Think how much they suffered till [sic!] writing this letter. It must be even harder for those who dropped out without writing.
The last samurai show up.

36. "The Loyal 47": The samurai are assembled.
To know what is right and to do it are two different things... Those who decided not to do it will suffer longer than we do.
(The subtitles say that there are 47 samurai, but in Japanese they say that there are 46 at the rice shop. Tawaraboshi will be the 47th samurai.)

37. "The Truth about Kuranosuke": (a) We suddenly see a cloaked figure trying to kill the attendant of Lady Asano to whom Oishi gave the "keepsakes." It turns out to be the attendant of whom Oishi was suspicious. (See 32, above.) She is captured. (b) They open the package from Oishi, and it turns out that it is a ledger and a letter explaining how they had used the money Lady Asano had given them (see 20, above) in order to prepare for "tonight."
Nothing was wasted It was all spent for tonight.
Lady Asano realizes that they plan to avenge Lord Asano.

38. "The March on Kira's Mansion": (a) Great fight scenes as Asano's men attack Kira's mansion. (b) Tawaraboshi goes to a nearby bridge and single-handedly blocks reinforcements and police from arriving.

39. "The Elusive Lord Kira": (a) Asano's men have killed all of Kira's men, but they cannot find Lord Kira himself. They are just about to give up when someone blows a whistle, signalling that they have him. (b) Having found someone who looks like Kira, they positively identify him by the scars left by Lord Asano's sword, and then invite him to commit seppuku, but he refuses and whimpers like the coward he is.

40. "Retribution": (a) Having cut off Lord Kira's head, Asano's men march through town. Tawaraboshi is with them. (b) A townsman, rushing to see them, trips and screams when he sees a dead couple in a doorway. It is the retainer and the prostitute (see 33, above). (c) Okano comes to see his ex-fiancee. The carpenter, realizing what has happened, asks Okano if he ever really liked his sister. Okano says that he loves her. He then asks the sister for forgiveness for what he has done, before rejoining the rest of Asano's men.

41. "Their Final Fate": The 47 samurai are forced to commit seppuku as punishment for their crime (but their fame and adulation are immediate and long-lasting).