Close Topic Options

[movie] The Last Samurai

I watched this movie last night. Absolutely amazing piece of work.

Cinematography was excellent. I didn't see if it was actually filmed in Japan, but I hope it was. The countryside for outdoors shots was so very good, it made me ache to visit there.

The acting was quite good. Of course, it was Tom Cruise, so it wasn't the best in the world, but it was pretty good.

Ken Watanabe, as Katsumoto, was incredible. As were all of the "Japanese." The "Americans" were generally very shallow, except for Cruise.

The love story that threads through the story is gentle, but a little bit predictable. However, Koyuki (playing Taka) was thoroughly believable. The conflicts that she is going through are subtle, underplayed, and very powerful.

The overall message of the movie, that bushido should be revered, that honor is the ruling characteristic of good men, is quite powerful. Of course there are quite a few conflicts throughout the movie between the American and Japanese cultures, especially when Cruise is away from the city (Tokyo).

I loved the way Cruise and Watanabe worked together to show how important honor is. This theme also permeates the love story.

I will definitely be buying this DVD, if only to watch Koyuki's performance.

4 1/2

Samurai The movie

Thanks for the review, I am trying to watch it, but can't seem to get it on our usual US$0.49 video yet. Someone told me it was very long.

[movie] The Last Samurai Sports & Fashion Music Movies

It isn't long compared to LOTR, but it is compared to a lot of other movies.

It is 154 minutes long. And worth every minute.

Samurai The movie

Thanks for the review, Nighthawk. I was skeptical about seeing this movie because honestly I cannot see Tom Cruise pulling off the role of a samurai! But the rest of the movie seemed to be interesting enough to at least rent the video.

Offtopic but, I hope the conjunction fairy doesnt get me for starting a sentence with a conjunction

Samurai The movie

I think that The Last Samurai was one of the best movies being released in 2003 and Ken Watanabe did a good job as Best Supporting Actor and deserved the accolades. As for where it was shoot, majority of the shots where done in New Zealand in a place called Taranaki and the rest was in the US and Japan.

[movie] The Last Samurai

Actually, I thought Tom Cruise did an excellent job. The part wasn't meant to be a portrayal of a real Japanese samurai, but rather of an American samurai.

In the first real battle in the movie, Cruise's character showed himself to be samurai in the real sense of the word. While he did eventually learn how to act like a Japanese samurai, he was still an obvious mixture of the two cultures.

The point that I got out of the movie was that he was true samurai, an embodiment of bushido, who just fought in a different style from the traditional samurai. The honor and bushido came through in his interaction with the Japanese family with whom he was staying.

[movie] The Samurai

I thought the same thing but Tom Cruise is a great actor, so I'm not surprised that he did a great job in the movie.

Thanks for the review Nighthawk.

[movie] The Samurai Movies Music Fashion & Sports

I just saw it, great movie and well placed. I however, am not a fan for detecting an ending and this slow depressed state of the out come made the inevitable drawn out and almost brutal. I am also not sure if I can swallow the amount of times that Tom was hit and still lived, it seemed a bit overdone in that area. At almost 2 and half fours it was quite a sit through - I enjoyed it despite my opinionated flaws.

Rate: 2