The Twilight Samurai – Review

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13 comments Mar 11, 2009  |   Posted by in Movie Reviews

Home  \  The Twilight Samurai – Review

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Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a samurai of the lowest rank. His income is miserable and he has to take care of his two daughters, as well as for his senile mother. The death of his wife deprived him of his only savings, but Iguchi gets hope and pleasure out of the fact that he can watch his two daughters grow up. Director  Yoji Yamada seemingly comes out of the blue and creates a fantastic modern samurai flick.

Despite being a lowly-ranked samurai, life is adequately comfortable, in an era of change and the coming of the end of the Meiji era. His life takes a turn when childhood sweetheart, and recent divorcee Tomoe Iinuma, re-enters his life. Protecting her from her violent ex-husband, love is rekindled between the two again, but Seibei, conscious of his low ranking status, is reluctant to declare his true feelings for Tomoe.

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If you’re expecting to see many swordplay from the Twilight Samurai, you might be a tad disappointed. There are only 2 fight scenes in this film, one with Seibei using a wooden sword to teach Tomoe’s ex-husband a lesson, and the other, a fight to the death with a clan rebel in the confines of an old house. The violence, while still dished out in sharp bursts, has a very real quality typically ignored by big budget martial arts productions: a perfect illustration of which has Seibei, towards the end of the movie, step over the body of a slain samurai assassin who is now frozen in rigor mortis and covered in flies. Somehow, by infusing the film with such ‘realism’ the story gets anchored and becomes more authentic.

Although the movie easily could have run the risk to be slow-paced or even tedious with its running time of 129 minutes, the director succeeds in telling this extraordinary tale by pinpointing the essence of what he wants to say through the life of the characters. “The Twilight Samurai” isn’t only Iguchi’s nickname, but also describes the era in which he is living. The world is facing a new dawn, a world in which samurai serve no purpose anymore and don’t have any right of existence. It is beautifully filmed, and is no wonder that it was was recognized with many awards in Japan’s Academy Awards in 2004. This is a simple and yet very complex masterpiece of a drama, that you shouldn’t miss. Recommended.
3



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  • Kojiki

    If you want to have just a ‘feel’ of what being a warrior, a samurai in the Japanese sense of the word: This is IT. I feel this film captures completely the essence of warrior-ship in Japanese sense. This is a tremendous film. It was rapturously received in Japan. They know and feel the REAL thing when they see one. [Not Tom Cruise's 'The Last Samurai' for pity's sake] This is the REAL thing. For me 5 full stars.

    The fact that you are in raptures over cruise and lukewarm here shows that you just DON’T get it.

  • http://japancinema.net Marcello

    I judge films on more then how accurately they portray your precious Japanese samurai codes. This is a movie website, not a cultural website. There is scripts, cinematography, acting, pacing, etc. etc. etc. that I judge these films by. To compare Last Samurai & this film, which are two completely different films mind you, is unrealistic. They are graded differently and appropriately. Lastly, this website is ran by human beings, with opinions, making your opinion no more valid then mine, my staffs, or anyone elses for that matter. Thank you for reading and browsing the site nonetheless.

  • Kojiki

    Hi Marcello

    Just two comments. My points here are APPROPRIATENESS and BEING PATRONISING.

    When you create something as an expression, an epitome of what you believe it to be, it should be judged by the mores of that context. ‘The Last Samurai’ is an American film attempting to capture the essence of Japanese warrior-ship, Samurai mores. As Japanese, cognizant of our mores surely I am entitled to say that ‘The Last Samurai’ totally missed what warrior-ship in Japanese terms is all about. and I am not the only Japanese to say so. This film totally TANKED in Japan. As did the ‘Shogun’ series; people laughed uproariously when they see it. ‘Twilight Samurai’ captures the essence of our warrior-ship. It did very well in Japan too.

    I disagree that these two are different types of films. They are precisely the same type of films: they strive to capture the exact same thing – the essence of Japanese warrior-ship. So as one who has a very good idea of what the films are trying to capture, I say one is lousy, one is good.

    Are you telling me that I, as Japanese ,do not know what I am talking about, and that others know better ? This is exactly what I mean by PATRONISING.

    PATRONISING is when a person feels that he knows better than another; when patently he does not.

    Let me just give you an example: Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (perhaps one of the epitomes of Western Art). Western Art and traditional Japanese, Zen, art (like Miyamoto Musashi’s) are different. They try to express and capture different things. Just one point, Japanese Zen art, like Miyamoto Musashi’s for example, strives to capture ‘the moment’, spontaneity.

    If I am to judge the Mona Lisa according to our Zen art mores, it is overdone, ‘unreal’. Can I then redraw and paint a Mona Lisa and then say it is even better than the original ? I will not dare to do so, because I will then disrespect the mores and capacities of others. But the West generally does not have compunctions in doing so. They generally think the know better, so they just go ahead and do it, and then say that theirs is better than the original. What is implied here is: they know better and can do better. That is what I mean by INAPPROPRIATE and PATRONISING.

    I do feel that it is very inappropriate for Cruise to cast himself as ‘the last samurai’ (that clearly is the point of the film). He is just a magnolia flavored ice cream masquerading as ‘real blood’. He clearly doesn’t have a clue; and to portray himself as ‘the last samurai’ is abhorrent. And for him to feel that he knows better when he clearly doesn’t is PATRONISING. I also feel that Chamberlain as Will Adams in Shogun is also inappropriate and patronising. He was made to have an affair with the spouse of one of our major daimyos, a completely inconceivable thing, for heaven’s sake!!

    As an aside, I am very proud of my heritage, my ‘precious Japanese samurai codes’. Do you think I am not entitled to do so ? My heritage is ‘precious’ to me, as I am sure Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is precious to you. That is precisely why I take the trouble to pen these letters. The Last Samurai I see as inappropriate and PATRONISING. If you want to have an idea of Japanese warrior-ship; See ‘Twilight Samurai’.

  • http://japancinema.net Marcello

    You know what, I can appreciate your POV and I am going to reqatch this film to truely get an essence of the meaning behind your words. I will never turn down an opportunity to expand my horizons and I truely value your feedback. Also I am curious, was Ken Watanabe’s reputation tarnished by this film in the Asian community since you exclaimed how much of a comical film this was to the eastern audiences?

  • Kojiki

    Hi Marcello

    On the West, and APPROPRIATENESS and BEING PATRONISING: let me just place two points here.

    President Clinton Bill and founding father Washington George. If I address your former president and your founding father in this way, and persist in doing so (even in the course of formal speeches to the UN and state dinners): How will you feel ?? You will protest and say that the proper way to address Western names is to have surnames last. But I insist, saying that we, Japanese, have surnames first and that this is the PROPER (probably ‘more civilized’) way. So Clinton Bill and Washington George. Will you not say that I, and my country, are being both INAPPROPRIATE and PATRONISING ??

    This is precisely the manner in which the West have ridden roughshod over our names and the proprieties of placing of surnames. It is not Naoto Kan but Kan Naoto. It is not Yukio Hatoyama but Hatoyama Yukio. But have you ever seen our prime ministerial names in their proper order in America, the West ??

    Our customs and traditions are traversed, blatantly. This is just an indication of ATTITUDE.

    In Shogun (the series) Blackthorne (Will Adams) is made to have an affair with Mariko (a thinly disguised literary adaptation of Hosokawa Gracia, spouse of one of the major, and respected figures, of the Edo era, Hosokawa Tadaoki). Lord Hosokawa Tadaoki, a major daimyo of the Edo period, was also made to be in Shogun to be an effete, brutish wife-beater. His wife found solace in Blackthorne’s arms. Completely fanciful, completely INCONCEIVABLE.

    Let me put it this way, a Japanese sailor cast away in America during the War of Independence taught the revolutionary army Jiu Jitsu and screwed the wife of Hamilton Alexander who was, by the way, an effete and brutal wife-beater. Do you find this INAPPROPRIATE and PATRONISING ?? Will you laugh uproariously if you see a Japanese drama series that have such episodes ?? In one episode you have Elizabeth Hamilton in the shower with this Jiu Jitsu expert.

    By the way James Clavell, who wrote ‘Shogun’ also wrote ‘Noble House’ of Hongkong. The ‘Noble House’ is Jardine Matheson, a trading conglomerate in Hongkong. Everybody in East Asia knows Jardine Matheson was THE Opium House (trader) that imported opium into China at the point of the gunboat cannon for over a hundred years. The main Opium House trader: ‘NOBLE HOUSE’ ??

    INAPPROPRIATE and PATRONISING ??

  • http://silveremulsion.com Will

    I gotta say that I totally agree with Kojiki on this one. I haven’t seen either film (Last Samurai or Twilight Samurai) so I cannot argue their merits against each other. Americans are generally extremely patronizing and exceptionalist though, with little respect for other cultures. The movie industry is a huge offender. If there was respect, a movie with Tom Cruise as samurai would have never happened.

  • http://japancinema.net Marcello

    Are the points regarding these two films any more offensive then say, Memoirs of a Geisha? Casting of the film of all the most prominent roles, including those of the geishas Sayuri, Hatsumomo and Mameha, did not go to Japanese actresses. Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li are both Chinese, whereas Michelle Yeoh is an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia. More notable is the fact that all three were already prominent fixtures in Chinese cinema. So at least in Last Samurai we knew Tom Cruise was white rather then think that American audiences would be too naive to notice miscasting Asian actors.

    To some Chinese, the casting was offensive because they mistook geisha for prostitutes, and because it revived memories of wartime Japanese atrocities. I think this is why cinema is great, taking in all the good and bad, it really does make you think.

  • http://silveremulsion.com Will

    Yeah, Memoirs frustrated me to no end because it threw all the semi-known Asian actresses into one movie, regardless of the fact that they were Chinese.

  • CJ

    “Let me put it this way, a Japanese sailor cast away in America during the War of Independence taught the revolutionary army Jiu Jitsu and screwed the wife of Hamilton Alexander who was, by the way, an effete and brutal wife-beater. Do you find this INAPPROPRIATE and PATRONISING ?? Will you laugh uproariously if you see a Japanese drama series that have such episodes ?? In one episode you have Elizabeth Hamilton in the shower with this Jiu Jitsu expert.”

    Personally Kojiki, I wouldn’t take offence to it as you seem to be doing. Could it be comical? Yep. Could it be an interesting revisionist drama that perhaps subverts the usual stereotypes? Yep.

    As long has you are having fun throwing down with caps lock, using far too much punctuation and explaining your problems with the western world randomly onto the website.

    Though I definitely agree, Twilight Samurai is an infinitely more subtle and brilliant film though I wouldn’t say it captures ‘the warrior spirit’. It’s more of a film brilliantly portraying the downfall and changes in Japan and how the samurai turned from an honorable warrior to a glorified accountant.

  • Kojiki

    “…and how the samurai turned from an honorable warrior to a glorified accountant.”

    CJ, by this one, simple remark you illustrate how completely, totally you fail to grasp the essence of ‘warrior spirit’ in the Japanese sense.

    ‘Warrior Spirit’ is not garbed in the armor of the warrior, nor in his arms and weapons, not even in his profession. ‘Warrior Spirit’ is a core, embedded approach to Life, the manner of your ‘soul’. You could have ‘Warrior Spirit’ wielding the sword, tabulating accounts, working as a garbage man. It is an approach to Life, the manner of your ‘soul’. You could have ‘the soul of an accountant’ when you are a four-star general.

    Great-great-grandfather was a samurai; probably of Iguchi Seibei’s generation. He became businessman; in your words, “turned from an honorable warrior to a glorified accountant.” But this was not so; he did his business in precisely the same way he had earlier lived his life – with courage, rectitude and, yes, honor. In business as in his previous life, the manner of his soul remained the same. You could be in ‘Warrior Spirit’ throwing garbage bags into the truck, flipping a hamburger. You could have ‘the soul of an accountant’ when you are a four-star general. Think Iraq, think Afghanistan; perhaps you can then have an inkling of what I am trying to say.

    This, again, just demonstrate this vast unbridged gulf: You (in the West) think you know, but really you just do not.

    Not to put too fine a point on it: Your failure to understand others is, really, YOUR problem, not the problem of others.

    CJ, I actually do not have any ‘problems with the western world’; I am very comfortable with it and in it, very comfortable. I am merely trying to point out the problems some of those in the West have in their dealings with others.

    Just let me say this: if someone is just trying to do this – to point out some of the problems some Westerners have in their perceptions of others – then this effort is turned round to be his ‘problems’ with the West; isn’t this PATRONISING??

    [Please excuse my idiosyncrasy – caps lock and punctuation. The thing is, I just find it rather hard to get through, if you know what I mean. I wonder whose problem this is?]

  • Kojiki

    Hi Marcello

    You have let my comments in into your blog; you have left them untouched. I know that you really care for your blog. You have even opened up, and tried to widen your perceptions.

    Please permit me to say this, sincerely. “Man, you have ‘Warrior Spirit’ ”. This is a part of what I am trying to say.

  • CJ

    Kojiko, you have misinterpreted my usage of “…and how the samurai turned from an honorable warrior to a glorified accountant.” as a comment on the main character. I meant it towards the others in his clan who hide behind this code when it is fitting yet, clearly, see no use for it in this new age and have practically abandoned it.

    So you more or less put words in my mouth unfairly, whether or not it was through a simple misread (perhaps I didn’t make it very clear) or you just indeed think so little of me. Ah well.

  • CJ

    Also, excuse my bitter, sarcastic edge to those earlier words. Kind of just how I type. And also, without the ability to bold or italicize words I guess caps lock is kind of necessary to highlight key words.



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