When several folks assume regarding a stereotypical samurai movie, one typically thinks the movie will be filled with swords and bloodshed. Twilight Samurai surprised me. I'm not certain why I loved this movie, but I very much did. It was a personal story, a terribly intimate one, as opposed to some tale of epic societal shift. I literally felt as if I lived in this small, feudal shogun village.
Twilight Samurai (or titled 'Tasogare Seibei' in Japanese) is a 2002 film, starring Hiroyuki Sanada who you'll acknowledge as "Ujio" in 2003's The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise. The story takes place around the 1860s and involves members of the Unasaka Clan within the Shonai Province. This space is now referred to as the Yamagata Prefecture in northeast Japan.
It's at a time of significant, progressive modification in Japan simply prior to the Meiji Restoration when the samurai effectively lost power. Some samurai pretend nothing is changing, others defiantly resist the changes, and some settle for it as a natural defeat. The age of the sword is coming back to an end and society struggles to adapt to that change.
The scenery is breathtaking and I used to be immensely impressed with the village sets. It very much makes me want to visit the countryside of Japan. The music is additionally quite good; emotional, fitting, and complementary to the cinematography.
I used to be pleasantly shocked at how well annunciated the Japanese dialogue was. I recognized some words, having studied Japanese for a year and a [*fr1] in college. However, it might be a gross understatement to counsel that I really understood any of the story's detail while not the assistance of the subtitles. At over 2 hours of reading subtitles, this could not be your kind of movie - however I really connected with it.
Twilight Samurai, in some respects, has occasional tones of a romantic comedy, but is overwhelmingly a romantic tragedy in that the two that love each other are consistently blocked from being together by the arbitrary standards of a conformist culture and also the societal expectations of a doomed feudal regime. The story is therefore acquainted and so human, that non-Japanese speaking viewers can simply connect with it.
Abundant like several books and films these days, the protagonists in this film are people of modern-day values trapped in a very time and a system of antiquated, obsolete ones. The order of the samurai and their sense of obligation and loyalty are half of what keeps a coffee-ranking samurai, Seibei (pronounced 'Say'-'bay') from his childhood love, Tomoe (pronounced "Toe'-'mo'-'eh'). Equally, the conformism and social conservatism of a girl's expectations are what keeps her from him.
There are only two fight scenes in the complete movie. Therefore if you are expecting an action movie, you will likely be disappointed. This movie may be a story concerning relationships. Told from the point of read of Seibei's youngest kid, the story reveals itself with hints of the category Romeo & Juliette dilemma.
The samurai belong to a category and each individual samurai's rank inside that class is measured by a monthly rice stipend known as a 'koku.' Our widowed hero raises 2 daughters and cares for a mother with Alzheimer's with only fifty koku. This petty quantity is described to be solely enough for a single person to survive for one year. This low stipend has forced Seibei to take menial side jobs like cage building and farming to subsidize.
Twilight Samurai is effective for somebody who is inquisitive about Japan's culture beyond that of just martial arts. Here, a heap is learned of a samurai's place, position, and interaction with a society. While there's a lot of that I've got invariably admired about the samurai, there has conjointly been a part of me that wonders if the reason why they're essentially extinct is due to some of the rigidity of their alleged values. This assertion is something I'm currently writing concerning for an upcoming article for the Castle Rock AIKIDO Dojo Newsletter, that can review the Seven Values of the Samurai 1st articulated in the 1899 Japanese text entitled Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe.
In a very scene close to the tip of the movie, I am reminded of some of the text from Miyamoto Musashi's Book of five Rings: The Water Book, when he describes the simplest ways in which to fight indoors. I had not truly appreciated these passages until I watched this scene from Twilight Samurai.
I initial saw Sanada-san, the male lead actor, portray "Ugio" in The Last Samurai. The Last Samurai and Twilight Samurai are similar to every other in that both happen at approximately the same time period. However, The Last Samurai deals with these societal changes on a macroscopic level and Twilight Samurai addresses these societal changes on a microscopic level.
Twilight Samurai wasn't regarding changing the country or saving the world. It was about a series of events that brought two individuals together. It was about a person who was, overall, content together with his place and standing in the globe - who had no ambition to rise in it different than to supply as best he could for his family. I suppose one may argue that of the seven virtues of a samurai, Seibei most valued that of humility.
As I watch a lot of and more Japanese films I am getting used to what I (a minimum of by Western standards) may call their melodramatic performances. I can undoubtedly see how this movie won twelve awards from the Japanese Film Academy, as well as Best Director, Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Actress. If it suggests that anything to you, Roger Ebert also gave it four stars. You can rent this movie from Blockbuster Video. But, I borrowed it from the Castle Rock Library. Relish!
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Dorish Hill has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Movie Reviews, you can also check out his latest website about:
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