Vasilis Topouzis The kind of film that Hollywood lack. In other words, focused on what it supposed to show without pushing any modern liberal ideologies that are Irrelevant with this film. Also the actors gave a very pleasing performance.

Gregory Porter The Twilight Samurai is a story, set at the turn of the century, about a petty samurai father, Seibei (Sanada), narrated by his then five-year-old daughter. Seibei's wife died of consumption leaving him to care for his dementia stricken mother, and two daughters. Seibei is of the samurai class though he works as a bureaucrat in the castle stores for a meager salary. IMDb summarizes the film as, "A 19th-century samurai tries to protect a battered wife." This only a minor plot point in the film. We follow him as he experiences tests of character with regard to his desires, his aspirations, and his duties to the clan.Now, this may be an embarrassing testament to my general ignorance of international movies but I mistook this for another film. There is a popular samurai series about Zatoichi (aka "The Blind Swordsman") that follows the adventures of, as you can probably guess, a wandering Samurai who is blind. According to Wikipedia, a total of 26 films were made in the '60's featuring this character. I thought that The Twilight Samurai was that. Clearly, any samurai movie is an action movie, right? Sigh, it sounds even more embarrassing when I write it. In my defense, the film The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi came out in 2003. The Twilight Samurai is, in fact, a serious and really good drama. It won just about every Japanese film award possible and it's not too surprising.The acting is fabulous, the cinematography is beautiful, and the music and sound are just as good. I'm generally not a fan of narration. "Show me, don't tell," I think when I hear a narrator but I've certainly heard worse narration than that of The Twilight Samurai's. I'm also generally not a fan of children in movies (read: I generally loathe them in movies) but Seibei's daughters are adorable. They play a large part in the motivations of Seibei but they don't play a large part in the movie. They are there just enough to work their way into your heart and make you sympathize with Seibei; one can understand why he wants to stay at home, take care of them, and watch them grow.Overall, The Twilight Samurai is a very good movie. To my chagrin, I went in expecting a hack and slash but was enthralled by the story presented in front of me. It's happy and sad at the same time, and despite being a very Japanese movie, as an American, I found it accessible. By accessible, I mean that some movies use specific of cultural cues that either go over my head or don't jive with my American state of mind. I'll get more into detail about what I mean but it requires giving away some spoilers. This all said, I'd recommend The Twilight Samurai to someone interested in watching a more serious movie about the self and society and family. The only reason why I didn't give it a four out of four is because of some details surrounding the ending (which I will discuss next). Now, mind yourself of spoilers from here on out.I mentioned that The Twilight Samurai was a very Japanese movie. In my experiences with Japanese movies, there are some recurring themes, namely, responsibility to one's duty particularly with respect to community versus the self. In The Twilight Samurai, we see this through Seibei and his interactions with his clan.A friend of Seibei comes back from Edo (the capital city which was later renamed Tokyo) and offers to take him there for a promotion. Seibei respectfully declines saying that his dream is to eventually give up the title of Samurai and become a farmer with his daughters; he doesn't want to rise up in class because he's happy and content. Despite this desire to become a farmer, he is tasked with the job of killing a criminal samurai. The criminal was ordered to commit suicide but didn't, saying, "If you want me dead, you'll have to do it yourself." The criminal samurai is the best one-sword fighter in the clan so it's a high-risk task. Seibei attempts to defer the "honor" or responsibility to someone else but, eventually, accepts because it's his duty to follow the orders of the clan. The film doesn't stop at the "following orders" image. He accepts the task reveals that he intended to provide a route for escape rather execution.A while ago, I reviewed The Shonen Merikansak. It's a movie about a washed-up punk band that reunites. The movie seemed say, "Yeah, I wanna rock, so let's rock." The last shot of the movie, however, undermines that whole message. It changes to "Yeah, I wanna rock, but let's be serious and get back to work after this bit of fun." The Twilight Samurai contains the theme of duty but still gives Seibei the strength to balance responsibility to one's post with responsibility to one's moral code. Seibei explains that he intended on letting the criminal escape to the mountains.Unfortunately, the film takes an easy way out. After all, what would happen if he let the guy escape? What type of repercussions would he face? If he said that he let the guy go, Seibei would totally be executed. Well, we don't have to worry about it because the criminal samurai says, "I will escape…after I kill you." Conveniently, Seibei must defend himself and is thus rewarded with money, and his dream wife. Is it a deal breaker? No, but it feels like a little bit of a cop out

Pier Giorgio Girasole I think I've seen this movie five times or more. The reason is simple. In merely two hours we can see both the style of Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi (the three great directors of the Past) filtered trough the lens of another great film maker, Yamada Yoji, who teach us a precious way of living. Simple and not ambitious. But that can be remembered forever. I think the samurai movie setting, resembling to Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", "The seven samurai" or "Red Beard", is just the scenery where the action takes place. The hero, the samurai Seibei, however, is alone here too but with a difference. He has a family. Something Kurosawa should have not underlined. The family is poor and weak and the samurai has seen his wife passing away and so,after all that, needs to rise up two daughters and look after his old mother. This element could make use think to Ozu productions. However we can find another clue. The female characters so important in this story as well as for the early movies of Mizoguchi, as "Osaka Elegy" and "Sister of Gion". Our hero Seibei then, start a love relationship with a woman, Tomoe, a childhood friend, then divorced from her husband. In this one character, the woman one, we have bounded together the sufferings stressed by Mizoguchi, the mute feelings of Kurosawa (the love between Katsushiro and Chiko in "The seven samurai") and the motherly sweet attitude of many woman in Ozu movie (think to the majestic role of Noriko in "Tokyo Story"). The way the movie develops is so great that you can feel the same of what is felt by the main character. His anxiety, his duty but, after all, his love. And not an ordinary one. A feeling that embraces both his family and Tomoe. Another time, as in Ozu's movies, the obstacle of all this is just the social life. The contrast between simplicity and austerity is stressed by the career and duty Seibei has to follow. The same duty that can be accomplished just because, seems to tell us the director at the end, he forgets for a while his beloved ones. However, and we have the greatest an unique point of this story,that makes it so different from common samurai movies, the same ones wait for him in the last sequence. So, when the work ends, a man should have something to protect. Duty is necessary but transitory. Love is something up to people but eternal. As the memory of Seibei when his younger daughter, already old, put some flowers over his grave. Close to the one of Tomoe. Japan has changed, from a samurai country trough an industrialized one. His duty was part of the past. The memory of Seibei's love and devotion to his dears not. Is eternal.

billha47 Told from the perspective of an impoverished samurai's daughter, the film becomes a study of a man of great character--meditative, caring for his two daughters and senile mother, reluctant to fight until ordered to by his clan. It develops slowly, with time to give dimensions to the main characters, and a sense of the daily lives of the minor characters. The care with which the characters are developed reminds me of Ozu's wonderful films. The contrasts between dark interiors and the sunlit landscapes enhances the sense that humans needlessly create suffering in such an environment. The "Twilight" in the title also indicates that in the 19th century, the various clans were breaking up,and the land was filled with wandering lord-less samurai, loyal only to themselves.