Twilight Samurai, The
Set in late 19th century feudal Japan, this is the tale of Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada), a low-ranking Samurai of the Unasaka Clan. Working as a minor bureaucrat in the castle stores, Seibei is nicknamed "Twilight" by his fellow retainers because he never goes out with them after work and is always home before nightfall. Having just lost his wife...
Set in late 19th century feudal Japan, this is the tale of Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada), a low-ranking Samurai of the Unasaka Clan. Working as a minor bureaucrat in the castle stores, Seibei is nicknamed "Twilight" by his fellow retainers because he never goes out with them after work and is always home before nightfall.
Having just lost his wife and with two young daughters and a senile mother to care for, Seibei is much too busy to go revelling. Heavily in debt from the cost of his wife's illness and subsequent funeral, his meagre stipend is not enough to live on and he has to work his small patch of land and take in piecework to make ends meet.
Seibei no longer considers himself a warrior and is happy farming and spending time with his children, whom he adores. But when his childhood love Tomoe (Rie Miyazawa) returns into his life, fleeing from a disastrous marriage, he accepts a challenge from her ex-husband, a higher rank Samurai, and his life changes irrevocably…
Review
Based on a novel by Shuhei Fujisawa and well directed by Yoji Yamada, The Twilight Samurai is an absolute delight. It's not a traditional Japanese Samurai tale of confrontational scenes, battles and sword fighting but is in fact a moving and emotional in-depth look into life at the time, focusing on Seibei, a man with more obligations than he can meet. While there are a few fight scenes, they are fairly low key and the acting and dialogue are much more important to the plot. The very word Samurai in the title is a bit misleading as the true title of Tasogare Seibei translates as Twilight Seibei.
While Seibei is poor by Samurai standards, he and his family live in what could be described as a detached villa with ample grounds and he has his own slave, Naota. Nevertheless, as a Samurai he is expected to maintain certain standards of dress and hygiene so when the pressures of holding his family together cause these standards to fall, it does not go unnoticed among his peers. When the lord of the Clan eventually notices it during a suprise inspection, both his boss’s boss and his own family reprimand him for this slight to their honour.
Outside of the Iguchi household we get glimpses of life in feudal Japan just as that system is breaking down in the lead up to the Meiji Restoration. Times were hard and consumption (Tuberculosis) was rife, even among the rich and powerful. Poverty hits the lower members of society first and the sight of the bodies of starving peasants floating down the river passes with little comment. In an often brutal society where a man in service could be ordered to fight or even commit suicide by his Lord, the side effects of Clan politics could change the lives of everyone overnight.
Told from the autobiographical view of Ito, Seibei's youngest daughter, now a middle-aged woman looking back on her childhood, the narrative gives us much background information on the characters, attitudes and customs of the time - invaluable for one viewing from a non-Japanese perspective. The acting is also excellent - Hiroyuki Sanada gives a great performance as Seibei, the lone parent and reluctant warrior struggling to meet all of his obligations to family and Clan. Rie Miyazawa as Tomoe, portrays his one-time sweetheart beautifully and the rest of the cast give solid performances. Min Tanaka's role as Zenemon Yogo, short though it was, is also worth a mention as he does a good job of portraying a man angry at being ordered to commit suicide for being loyal to his master.
The movie has an impressive and well-deserved string of awards to its name, winning 12 Japan Film Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress. It also picked up Best Feature award at the 2003 Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival, Best Asian Film award at the 2004 Hong Kong Film Awards and won a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2003 Academy Awards.
The picture is listed on the box cover supplied as being presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen but that seems inaccurate as there are no top and bottom borders to the image and it looked more like 1.85:1 anamorphic on my TV. That little snippet aside, image quality isn't that great - colours are bland and contrast is a bit low, which results in everything seeming dull and drab. A lot of the scenes are shot in low light conditions, a lot of the interactions taking place indoors and at dusk, which doesn't help either. On top of that, the image is a bit soft and I noticed a lot of motion blur while trying to capture the stills, which made that quite difficult and just helped highlight the poor quality transfer. By contrast, the daytime outdoor scenes seemed much brighter and clearer but the motion blur is still there. All of that said, it isn't so bad as be unwatchable but it could have been so much better.
There are three options for the sound, all with Japanese dialogue only, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 or Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0. The optional English subtitles, should you need them, are clear and do not obstruct the view. As you'd expect, the DTS soundtrack is the slightly better choice over the Dolby 5.1 track, with good use of the surround soundstage, stronger bass and clear dialogue throughout. The score is also quite nice and low-key and adds much to the mood of the scenes.
All in all, I'd have to recommend the film for anyone with a liking for Japanese culture, good historical drama or just a good story. The quality of the writing, direction and acting far outweigh the poor visuals mentioned above.
Extras
There are no extras, other than some trailers…
Original Trailers - A one-minute teaser and a two-minute theatrical trailer for the movie. Neither gives a true indication of the story, focusing more on the action.
Trailer Reel - Trailers for a selection of Tartan Video offerings - Respiro, Basque Ball; Beijing Bicycle; In The Mood For Love; Lovers Of The Arctic Circle and Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring.
Overall
The Twilight Samurai is an excellent piece of filmmaking and if you're comfortable with subtitles, then it's well worth a relaxing evening's viewing and its mix of action, drama and romance has some appeal for everyone.
Given the quality of the film, it deserved a better DVD package - the transfer could have been better and there are no extras to speak of. If you speak Japanese, then you'd be well advised to look into the 2-disc, extras laden Japanese Limited Edition as a much richer alternative.
This page has been read:
4464
times