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| Iguchi is perhaps the most approachable samurai that most American audiences have had a chance to see. He's not a swashbuckler. In fact, he leads a fairly boring life. He's widowed, raising two daughters and caring for his senile mother. He goes to work each day, then at the end of the day, while the others he works with are ready to go out for drinks, he merely goes home to his family. |
THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI
(2002) Film Review by Darrel Manson |
| This page was created on May 15, 2004
This page was last updated on
May 17, 2004
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| CREDITS |
| Directed by Yoji Yamada
Novels by Tasogare Seibei, Chikkou Shiatsu and Iwaibito Sukehachi
Screenplay byYoji Yamada and Yoshitaka Asama
 Cast (in credits order)
Hiroyuki Sanada .... Seibei Iguchi
Rie Miyazawa .... Tomoe Iinuma
Nenji Kobayashi .... Choubei Hisasaka
Ren Osugi .... Toyotarou Kouda
Mitsuru Fukikoshi .... Michinojo Iinuma
Kanako Fukaura
Hiroshi Kanbe .... Naota
Miki Itô .... Kayana Iguchi
Erina Hashiguchi .... Ito Iguchi
Reiko Kusamura
Setsuko Tanaka
Kii Mizuno
Yuuki Natsusaka
Astushi Maeda
Tsukasa Sugawara
Kouichi Taniguchi
Teruhiko Tanaka
Takako Miyashima
Sachiko Takada
Mayu Komori
Astushi Yoshikawa
Kenji Yoshida
Takashi Yamazaki
Shinya Amako
Rio Ishino
Norio Satou
Keishi Arashi
Baijaku Nakamura
Masato Akatsuka
Masahiro Satô
Senri Sakurai
Masayasu Kitayama
Toshinori Omi
Shinjiro Nakamura
Min Tanaka .... Zenemon Yogo
Keiko Kishi .... Bannen no Ito
Tetsuro Tamba .... Tozaemon Iguchi
Produced by
Hiroshi Fukazawa .... producer
Tomiyasu Ishikawa .... executive producer
Tetsuo Kan .... executive producer
Tomoo Miyakawa .... executive producer
Shigehiro Nakagawa .... producer
Toshio Ogiwara .... executive producer
Motoyuki Oka .... executive producer
Ichirô Yamamoto .... producer
Nobuyoshi Ôtani .... executive producer
Original Music by Yousui Inoue and Isao Tomita
Cinematography by Mutsuo Naganuma
Film Editing by Iwao Ishii
Rated
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG |
| TRAILERS AND CLIPS |
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| SYNOPSIS |
Set in the late nineteen century as the feudal Shogun period was giving way to the Meiji Restoration, Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a low-ranking samurai of the Unasaka clan in Shonai Province of northeast Japan. His wife has died of tuberculosis, and with two daughters, Kayano and Ito, and an elderly mother to support, he and his family must survive in austerity. The moment his daily work as a clerk in
one of the clans warehouses is over, he hurries home, refusing to drink or eat with fellow samurai. Behind his back, his fellow samurai teasingly call him "Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Seibei)." The divorce of his childhood friend Tomoe (Rie Miyazawa) leads him into a confrontation with her violent ex-husband, a high-ranking samurai. When word of Seibei's easy victory using only a wooden sword begins to circulate, his reputation for swordfighting prowess begins to change his colleagues
assessment of him. Just as Seibei begins to dream that despite his impoverishment he might win the hand of the long loved Tomoe, he is caught in the shifting turmoil of the times and is assigned, against his wishes, by his superiors to confront and kill a renowned warrior on the wrong side of a clan power struggle. -- © Empire Pictures |
 Review by
DARREL MANSON BLOG
Pastor, Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch01198
Darrel has an incredible love and interest in the cinematic arts. His reviews usually include independent and significantly important film. |
 Samurai were an exotic warrior class in the days of feudal Japan. Like European knights, they lived and fought in a time of brutality, but were governed by codes of honor. Like the knights, they have often been romanticized
in films like Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai and more recently, The Last Samurai. The American equivalent is the gunslinger, as in The Magnificent Seven (an Americanization of The Seven Samurai) or in Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns; the futuristic equivalent is the Jedi knight of the Star Wars franchise.
 In The Twilight Samurai, we meet a different kind of samurai. Iguchi is not a great warrior. He serves his clan by working in the lord's warehouses, keeping track of the supplies they will need in case of a battle. He knows how much dried
cod is stored and how long it will keep. Still, he is of the samurai class and training.
 Iguchi is perhaps the most approachable samurai that most American audiences have had a chance to see. He's not a swashbuckler. In fact, he leads a fairly boring life. He's widowed, raising two daughters and caring for his senile mother. He goes to work
each day, then at the end of the day, while the others he works with are ready to go out for drinks, he merely goes home to his family and to the work that must be done at home. His co-workers call him “Twilight” behind his back, since he's always home by twilight.
 “Twilight” could also be a reference to the fact that Iguchi is the lowest level of samurai. His low place in the feudal system doesn't even give him enough to make ends meet. He does piece work at home, building insect cages, to try to feed
his family. When his wife died, he was forced to sell his sword (his weapon and a sign of his position) to provide her with a fitting funeral.
 There is yet another meaning for the “Twilight” of the title. Like The Last Samurai, this story takes place in the years just before the end of the samurai and their feudal system. Even though they do not know it, all of the samurai in the
film are in the twilight of their time -- a period between two eras.
 This is certainly a much different picture of samurai than seen in the more commercial The Last Samurai. Swordplay only occasionally finds its way into this film (but it's pretty good when it's there). There
isn't much talk of honor, shame, or the bushido code. There isn't the bravura nor a detached stoicism. Instead there is a very human portrait, one that is easy to identify with. Iguchi is a loving father, a man insecure about being loved, a conscientious man.
 In The Last Samurai, the warriors go forth to die in honor. When the time comes for Iguchi to go forth and kill or be killed, he goes with reluctance. The reluctance is not so much about his fear of dying
as it is his distaste for killing. Defeat is not as much to be feared as is victory, for in victory he must become the beast that he thought he had left behind.
 The film often seems slow, but the time is used to develop the story, slowly letting us in on more of Iguchi’s life and struggle. His has been a hard life, and yet, with all the sorrow that has filled that life, he realizes the joys that still are
there.
As exotic as samurai are to our Western thought, The Twilight Samurai shows us that under all the codes and formality, there are people whose real battle is, like ours, a battle to live well and live properly.
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