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The conclusion of director Kenji Mizoguchi's mid-career epic (a story filmed many times before and since) revolves around the outcome of the deliberations in Part 1, in which the ronin loyal to their disgraced master plotted revenge for his death at the hands of Kira. Oishi, the chamberlain who heads up the group, is caught between a public statement and his thirst for revenge, so his men have to wait for a time until he can resolve that dilemma. Interestingly, Mizoguchi does not show the actual siege of Kira's castle, only the outcome in which the ronin deposit his bagged head on a shrine in a ceremony to mark their revenge. This occurs at the halfway point of Part 2, and the rest of the film deals with the repercussions of their actions. Mizoguchi favors long takes of conversations, with little cutting between characters and only occasional camera movement, as in the opening crane shot which glides down on a compound where a dramatic presentation is taking place. Like most samurai tales, this is a male-dominated story, but Mizoguchi, whose postwar films would often deal with the problems of women in Japanese society, does introduce the character of Omino, a young woman who disguises herself as a man hoping to join Oishi's clan in the aftermath of the siege. As with the first chapter of this saga, the emphasis is on interpreting the ronin code and then following it; as one character puts it, "We must act like samurai first and then follow the teaching of the ages."