Leofwine_draca
THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI is a moving drama about a poor samurai struggling to make ends meet for his family in the 19th century. It's a mature and compelling, slow paced and expertly directed with a nice focus on character over action or incident. In fact, it did well enough to garner a 'best foreign film' nomination at the Oscars, so it can't be bad. Distinctly old-fashioned and as unwilling to move with the times as the samurai himself is, this is a film fan's film, a movie that embraces all the good things about modern cinema.Hiroyuki Sanada is one of my favourite Japanese actors. He started out as a protégé of Sonny Chiba's, cutting his teeth on a number of ninja and action epics that brought him worldwide fame. Now that he's older, in his 40s, he's regarded as a fine character actor, appearing in everything from RING to SUNSHINE. His role in THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI might well be the best of his career; indeed, he embodies his character so well that it appears he was born to play it. That's not to pour criticism on the rest of the cast, who are all very good, it's just that Sanada lives and breathes his role in this film and every time he appears on screen, and you can't take your eyes off him.Director Yoji Yamada has been making films since the early '60s and his experience and professionalism shows. This is a film with a bit of everything: it's a story of human relationships and of love; it's a bitingly realistic film that explores territory usually ignored in period Japanese movies (the mentally ill, for instance); it looks at class and class structure and what makes a man. It also contains an extended duel at the climax which is one of the longest-running and most painful I've ever seen; samurai fights are usually over in a matter of seconds, but this set-piece runs for nearly half an hour and is a great two-hander, one of the best. In the end, THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI is a fine movie and a film up there with the best of Kurosawa.
Gregory Porter
The Twilight Samurai is a story, set at the turn of the century, about a petty samurai father, Seibei (Sanada), narrated by his then five-year-old daughter. Seibei's wife died of consumption leaving him to care for his dementia stricken mother, and two daughters. Seibei is of the samurai class though he works as a bureaucrat in the castle stores for a meager salary. IMDb summarizes the film as, "A 19th-century samurai tries to protect a battered wife." This only a minor plot point in the film. We follow him as he experiences tests of character with regard to his desires, his aspirations, and his duties to the clan.Now, this may be an embarrassing testament to my general ignorance of international movies but I mistook this for another film. There is a popular samurai series about Zatoichi (aka "The Blind Swordsman") that follows the adventures of, as you can probably guess, a wandering Samurai who is blind. According to Wikipedia, a total of 26 films were made in the '60's featuring this character. I thought that The Twilight Samurai was that. Clearly, any samurai movie is an action movie, right? Sigh, it sounds even more embarrassing when I write it. In my defense, the film The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi came out in 2003. The Twilight Samurai is, in fact, a serious and really good drama. It won just about every Japanese film award possible and it's not too surprising.The acting is fabulous, the cinematography is beautiful, and the music and sound are just as good. I'm generally not a fan of narration. "Show me, don't tell," I think when I hear a narrator but I've certainly heard worse narration than that of The Twilight Samurai's. I'm also generally not a fan of children in movies (read: I generally loathe them in movies) but Seibei's daughters are adorable. They play a large part in the motivations of Seibei but they don't play a large part in the movie. They are there just enough to work their way into your heart and make you sympathize with Seibei; one can understand why he wants to stay at home, take care of them, and watch them grow.Overall, The Twilight Samurai is a very good movie. To my chagrin, I went in expecting a hack and slash but was enthralled by the story presented in front of me. It's happy and sad at the same time, and despite being a very Japanese movie, as an American, I found it accessible. By accessible, I mean that some movies use specific of cultural cues that either go over my head or don't jive with my American state of mind. I'll get more into detail about what I mean but it requires giving away some spoilers. This all said, I'd recommend The Twilight Samurai to someone interested in watching a more serious movie about the self and society and family. The only reason why I didn't give it a four out of four is because of some details surrounding the ending (which I will discuss next). Now, mind yourself of spoilers from here on out.I mentioned that The Twilight Samurai was a very Japanese movie. In my experiences with Japanese movies, there are some recurring themes, namely, responsibility to one's duty particularly with respect to community versus the self. In The Twilight Samurai, we see this through Seibei and his interactions with his clan.A friend of Seibei comes back from Edo (the capital city which was later renamed Tokyo) and offers to take him there for a promotion. Seibei respectfully declines saying that his dream is to eventually give up the title of Samurai and become a farmer with his daughters; he doesn't want to rise up in class because he's happy and content. Despite this desire to become a farmer, he is tasked with the job of killing a criminal samurai. The criminal was ordered to commit suicide but didn't, saying, "If you want me dead, you'll have to do it yourself." The criminal samurai is the best one-sword fighter in the clan so it's a high-risk task. Seibei attempts to defer the "honor" or responsibility to someone else but, eventually, accepts because it's his duty to follow the orders of the clan. The film doesn't stop at the "following orders" image. He accepts the task reveals that he intended to provide a route for escape rather execution.A while ago, I reviewed The Shonen Merikansak. It's a movie about a washed-up punk band that reunites. The movie seemed say, "Yeah, I wanna rock, so let's rock." The last shot of the movie, however, undermines that whole message. It changes to "Yeah, I wanna rock, but let's be serious and get back to work after this bit of fun." The Twilight Samurai contains the theme of duty but still gives Seibei the strength to balance responsibility to one's post with responsibility to one's moral code. Seibei explains that he intended on letting the criminal escape to the mountains.Unfortunately, the film takes an easy way out. After all, what would happen if he let the guy escape? What type of repercussions would he face? If he said that he let the guy go, Seibei would totally be executed. Well, we don't have to worry about it because the criminal samurai says, "I will escape…after I kill you." Conveniently, Seibei must defend himself and is thus rewarded with money, and his dream wife. Is it a deal breaker? No, but it feels like a little bit of a cop out
princebansal1982
Though the movie name is The Twilight Samurai, it is not really a samurai film. In fact it reminded me of movies of Yasujiro Ozu, who is one of my top directors. It has the same calm pace, subtle acting and sweet characters without any posturing associated with other typical samurai movies.The movie doesn't seems to be shot in 2002, In fact while watching the movie I though it was filmed in 50's. There is only one real battle and that is near the end of the movie. Even the battle is quite realistic and not overdone.Like in Ozu's movies, interactions with different characters is what makes this movie so interesting, the other office workers, meeting with the king, the kids, childhood friend Tomoe etc. Main dramatic element is provided by internal struggles of Seibei Iguchi, how he sacrifices for his kids and how he refuses to conform and how he doesn't do what is expected of him if he thinks it will hurt others.
