Twilight Samurai with Hiroyuki Sanada

[GeneChing]

Ok, so the version of this that I saw was translated into Mandarin without subtitles and my Mandarin isn't that good, not by a long shot. There's a lot of talking in this film. Only two fights. I had to keep guessing as to what was going on, because it's all very deep and there's lots of character development. In the end, I think I got it, or at least enough of it to make sense.

Twilight Samurai had a limited release in the U.S. and got rave reviews. It is a beautiful film. Every shot is postcard perfect. There was a sense of realism about how the Samurai might have actually lived, doing desk jobs, working in their yards, day-to-day crap that we can all identify with. The lead, Hirayuki Sanada (who is also the lead in THE PROMISE, see Hiroyuki Sanada: "Promises" for Peace through ilm (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=662) & The Promise - Know What It Is and What It Is Not (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=659)) turns in a complex performance. Personally, I thought he was too neurotic. When he does show his sword skills, he's a total ass kicker, and I'd be ****y as all hell if I had those kind of skills.

Which leads us to the fight scenes. Well, there's only two, plus a short scene of Sanada practicing. In the practice sequence, you can see that Sanada has mad kendo skills. He's fast, precise and his cuts are well practiced. It's just a tease of a scene though. There's a great fight right after the practice scene where Sanada uses a short stick to own an infuriated sword-wielding samurai. After that scene, which was tightly choreographed, filmed in a single shot, I stuck it through to the final fight. The final fight sucked. It was mostly in the dark or behind screens and such, so most of the action is implied. And there's a lot of talking. Way too much talking.

Like I said, critics were raving about this film, and it's very well crafted. Some were hailing it as a leader in the new wave Samurai films, or Chanbara, that is taking place in Japan (although I have yet to be that impressed by anything new yet). Without the precious dialogue, I couldn't really get into this. What can I say? I like a good samurai film, but this one needed more sword fights. Sanada has the skills for great fights and the director handled the midfilm fight excellently, but the finale...argh, the finale. Why is it so hard to get good finale fght scenes anymore? Drop the ball there, and it's over.

[jethro]

did you think of watching it in the proper form before wirintg your review

And the only sanada movie you need to see is corey yuen's masterpiece. ;)

[GeneChing]

jethro, many times Asian cinema is far better in an untranslated form (or in this case, translated from one language I don't understand into another). It's more pure.

[jethro]

you obviously didn't read my reviw for, izo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need to know what's going on, I can look at facial expressions.

[GeneChing]

So why are you capping on me for not watching it in 'proper form'? I think you need to loosen the straps on your spiky hat a little...:p

[jethro]

I will keep my spiky hat on as tight as I want. It actually kind of hurts, but I will never take it off or loosen it and have a chance of it falling off. I WILL have it on when we meet in battle Gene.!!.

With Izo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, I thought I got a good version, then like all movies(mainly tai seng), the songs subtitles were cut out. So you need to check out what you are gettign first. But I gave my friend Hero and he gave it back and said it was ok. Then I found out he didn't watch it with subs, just the cantonese language. Teh fact he said it was ok and not horrible blew me away, but he was missing out on a big story. There doesn't need to be action(did I just say that?), just a good story or all the other elements that make a great movie. Say with seven samurai where you don't need much words cause it is more of a facial expression and respect type movie, it is too good of a story not to folow along and just watch. So hopefully you don't read just the last sentence of this, story I guess, I will watch TS in "my own" proper form and tell you wha I think. And if I don't like I will never talk to you again:p

And maybe you speak some sort of asian language. But I know very little and actually have no interest in learning any of those. It would make some sense since I didn't even take into account what race you are and what languages you speak. Just so you know. Me----RACE-white, LANGUAGES I SPEAK-honkee, hopefully many others one day like old finnish, and old celtic, I want to study in etymology and philology one, but asian languages completely mystify me.

[GeneChing]

I don't share your viewing strategy because I don't have the luxury. I catch the videos when I can. If it didn't entertain me in a lower res or non-subtitled version, I seldom move on to a better version. But I like things stripped down. I never save something for the big screen because it's rare for me to get out to the big screen. I'd rather see something now, then wait for a better version.

BTW, the DVD of TS I saw was a loaner. I see most of my films via trade with fellow Asian film buffs. :cool:

[mantis108]

Basically, it's the story about the life and times of a lower ranking samurai (Sanada) during the struggle between the last shogunate and the Imperial court as Japan moving toward modernization.

It is as much a love story and an anthropological look at a page of Japanese history. Sanada plays the so-called Mr. Twilight, a nick name that's given by his well to do colleague. His ailing mom (alzheimer's disease) and the death by tuberculosis of his wife caused him lots of money. He also had to take cake of 2 young girls and maintain an attendant as his social status requires. This forced him to live on credit (over drafting 20 stones of annual income) and he had to rely on moonlight as a cricket cage maker. He barely had time to take care of himself let alone dreaming of remarrying.

But as luck would have it, his childhood sweet heart got devoiced and they started to reconnect again. This infuriated the ex-husband who was a lousy drunk but very strong swordsman. So in defending the honor of the lady friend's family, Mr. T agreed to deul with the ex-husband. First, we didn't know why exactly Mr. T would use the stick to duel instead of a sword but later in the movie we know that he has no option because he doesn't own a katana anymore! It's kind of the secret of his.

Later his lord passed away unexpectedly and the clan went into an internal power struggle. He was ordered to accept the suicidal mission to cleanse an opposition's subordinate who is also a much stronger swords man. This time he can only rely on his skill with the short sword because he pawned his Katana for the funeral of his wife. BTW, this match is really something to watch. I was very impressed by his whole de-escalating and negotiating tacting prior to the fight. When that failed he displayed some serious skill with the short sword.

I don't think I should give away the story too much as it is really something beautiful to watch how the story unfolded. Anyway, I highly recommend this movie as well.

Mantis108

[GeneChing]

See? Now I missed the whole *spoiler* part about the pawned sword. That's a great element and to the credit of the story. The rest falls pretty much as I thought, which is reassuring. However, I still wasn't happy with the finale fight. Maybe it's me, but if the finale fight isn't a knockout, I leave a samurai film or kung fu film unsatisfied. That's where Fearless (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41304) and The Myth (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41332) fail for me too, and where Sha Po Lang (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38795) succeeds.

[Jimbo]

Gene:
I saw Twilight Samurai when it was in limited release a couple or so years ago. I ended up seeing it twice. What I loved about it was the old-school feel of it. Today, for better or worse, almost every film is loaded with CGI effects and overdone action. The feel I got from this one was more similar to the older Kurosawa samurai films of the 50s and early 60s, though with more of an emotional, personal component to it. I thought even the film, When the Last Sword is Drawn was overdone in terms of the effects, and went longer than the story required of it towards the end.

What I really like about Sanada is that he's perhaps the one Asian martial artist/film star who seems able to pull off an onscreen performance that can carry deep, subtle emotional weight; certainly, Jackie Chan or Jet Li can't do it. I suppose it matters to me because, being Asian-American, I do sometimes like to see Asians onscreen that aren't the typical cardboard cutout characters they are portrayed as in American films, or in most Asian action films. What his character feels in the film cuts across all cultures and boundaries.

Though I agree that the final fight was a bit of a downer, it did look like how such a fight would have probably happened in reality. It showed how the other samurai's long sword was thwarted by being in such close, cramped quarters vs. Sanada's character's short sword.