This is a mobile optimized page that loads fast, if you want to load the real page, click this text.

The Last Samurai: Hollywood or History?

While there are parallels with the stories of Western advisors of Jules Brunet, I must ultimately consider THE LAST SAMURAI a continuation of 19th century Orientalism - where a Westerner falls in love with an exotic locale, and then teaches the people there how to be themselves.

It has a lot more to do with DANCES WITH WOLVES than with the reality of Meiji Japan.
 
As Tom Cruise said on the extras(and he was right bout this) it is a mixture of fact and fiction.
Real and Hollywood.
Excellent movie in my opinion.
 
If it were in any sense real, Tom Cruise's character would have died. Of course, Tom Cruise is never allowed to die in any of his movies (Vanilla Sky being the arguable exception, and he's resurrected in that movie anyway).

THE LAST SAMURAI: yet another attempt to portray Tom Cruise as a modern-day Jesus?
 
The Last Samurai brought many tears to japanese people on the Premier in Japan! There were a lot of people crying for the ending of Katsumoto his son Nobutada and Ujio and all the other samurai warriors. The Movie was excellent from the beginning till the ending. The OST is wonderful i still listen to it. So gorgeous!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*LoVe WoMeN LoVe GiRlS*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The emotional and artistic impact of the film is not at question here: what we are debating is how realistic it is.
 
miwasatoshi said:
The emotional and artistic impact of the film is not at question here: what we are debating is how realistic it is.
Click to expand...


hey we are debating how the movie is! and i want to discuss every aspect of the movie because its was Hollywood biggest step in japanese history☝


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*LoVe WoMeN, LoVe GiRlZ*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

I think the biggest "step" if you want to call it that was taken quite a few years ago when the mini-series "Shogun" was aired in the US. That much more than the "Last Samurai" opened many peoples eyes to the culture of Japan.

I'm just afraid that people are going to watch this movie and take it as "true" history, just like many did with "Shogun".
 
uhu JAMES CLAVELL'S SHOGUN was indeed very good. But who is your favourite character in The Last Samurai?
 
Kayo said:
uhu JAMES CLAVELL'S SHOGUN was indeed very good. But who is your favourite character in The Last Samurai?
Click to expand...

Actually I really don't have a favorite character from the movie. I found quite a few parts of the movie to be rather incredulous BUT from an entertainment, purely entertainment point of view it was an O.K. movie.

I am glad I waited until it was out on DVD before I watched it, I think I would have been highly disappointed to have paid to see it at a theater.
 
I found the movie to be gorgeous, have a beautiful story, but in the end, be completely unrealistic. In my opinion, 300 was more realistic and true to the actual events it is attempting to depict. I'll refrain from discussing Gladiator (which was awesome, but still really innaccurate).

But, hey, we need to accept that it is Hollywood, and Hollywood is not going to leave any story that comes through their glitsy world escape unscathed. Hollywood reserves the right to rape any book, play, movie, or event that comes to their attention. Let's just be thankful they didn't butcher The Last Samurai. All it would have taken was a hammy Jar-Jar Binks character or a "cute" talking dog, and any potential the movie had as a worthwhile flick would have been flushed away like so much bodily waste.

In the end, I'll tell everyone the same thing I've said about Gladiator, or Braveheart: If you want to see a cool movie, see The Last Samurai, if you want to know history, read a book.
 
Yup indeed!! It is indeed a great movie! Im proud that every one allmost like the movie, but everyone who is your favourite character?
 
He was a model of Saigo?
That was a really sad civil war(ﾂ青ｼ窶愿ｬﾂ静ｭ窶侏?）
some of them separated into the enemy and the ally even if they were the brothers,
friends, or parent and child ,and they fought.
 
Last edited:
So in fact its a good movie but it hasn't to do anything with the reality, but then i have another question, everything that comes into the movie was it also exactly the same as in the real time? with other words are the background, the harbor, the people, the weapons like it used to be in history or are there some stuff that don't belongs there in that time? like automatic rifles and stuff...??
 
well history guys/ movie fans is someone there to help me with my question ??
 
Gatling gun
During the Japanese Boshin War (1868-1869), Gatling guns were used in land battles and mounted on ships to repel boarders.
Gatling gun - Wikipedia
Click to expand...

Both parties, the shogunate and the rebellion, later Meiji government, spent tons of money to buy newer arms from other countries.

It might be a choice for the new Meiji govenment to refuse payment of the former shogunate debt from other countries, but the Meiji govenement agreed to pay it. This is one reason why Japan was trusted by other countries.
 
What's your favourite character and what is your favourite scene?
 
SO people WHO is your favourite character and why??
 
think the background is so strange.
In the war against the gorvonment, Katsumoto leads only his family clan force. This is the battle style of 16century in Japan. But, this movie is taken place in the end of 19century.

In this era(Bakumatsu and maiji ishin), the young people in bushi class seem more frexible. They obayed their "Hanshu"(the leader of each county) and "Hangaku"(the ideological tendency), but they can make their own bloc party. The model of Katsumoto is oviously Saigo Takamori, and the big part of peole who fought with him is young people who sympathized him.
So in this age, the ideology is more improtant than family tradition for young men to make their dicision.

"The Last Samurai" doesn't describe this aspect at all. It feels strange to me.

But, the other items and key words roughly belong to this age. So, this is confuses me more... But the armors are strange. Maybe they use them but...
they belong to more 16century than 19century.

And add to that, in non-Japanese movies, they always grasp Japanese sword in wrong way.(Exept "The Last Samurai") When one use Japanese sword, one must keep left hand on the very hilt on the sword. Right hand is on the upper part. To do so, one can use more one's strangth when one swing the sword.

Too long writing...
At last, my favorite character is Katsumoto! He is cool. I think his lifestyle is respectable.
 
Great movie seen it loads of times. If all movies were factually correct we would watch documentries instead. Perhaps they bent the rules but as a movie fan the film was great.

The flip side of the coin yea they messed with alot of stuff and really made it ott, riding into a howitzer and machine guns yea right....

One thing that caught my attention the first time I watched the film was how they committed seppuku. They drove the Wakizashi into their stomach. Now im sure seppuku is commited by slicing across the stomach thus disemboweling ones self. Also seppuku was done with a tanto rather than a Wakizashi right?

I suppose they did it this way to keep the gore to a minimum and keep that rating down as low as they could.
 
thanks people for the comments, i'm really happy you all are impressed in the ways and days of the Samurai and how it really was in the Meiji Era.

Arigatougozaimasu minnasan!
 
i have them also both! i like shogun too but i preferr more The Last Samurai because its an amazing movie
 
I would say that The Last Samurai is 70% Hollywood and 30% history.

Although I also thought it was a good movie, I was kind of disappointed in the scenery as anyone who has lived in Japan would immediately know that it was not filmed in Japan. I was so sure of this while viewing the movie that I researched it on the internet afterwards and found out that it was filmed in New Zealand. This kind of took a little bit away from the movie for myself. But for those who have never been to Japan they would never know the difference anyway.

Movies like this, including the Shogun mini-series and Memoirs of a Geisha, are not supposed to be 100% historical or they would be called documentaries as Zaff stated above. They are meant to entertain and put one into a world where one can fantasize a bit and escape from reality.

Still, I enjoyed it and still do as it is a very emotional movie and I am still moved by it much the way I am moved by Dances With Wolves and Shogun as I can relate to the main characters being captivated and drawn into another culture so different and alien to his own.

My favorite character? Although I throughly enjoyed Watanabe Ken as Katsumoto, I would have to say my favorite is Ujio, played by Hiroyuki Sanada. He seemed the most realistic to me and played the part wonderfully. He was the one who kept beating Algren to a pulp and that is also among my favorite scenes.

Ujio, without saying a word takes all the arrogance away from Algren and humbles him by showing him that he is not as great with a sword as he thinks he is. This makes Algren a better person because of it by forcing him to look inside himself and to come to terms with his own arrogance.
 
Last edited:
Fact. Saigo Takamori vs. Emperor Meiji in the Boshin War. End of the Tokugawa Shougnate. Meiji won and thus the imperial forces of Japan, or Nihon-Koku as it is called in Japanese eliminated all the remaining samurai (Saigo was not a samurai, he was their leader, samurai meens one who serves). The evidence suggests, however, that it was more dramatic in this than it was in real life. Also, when the people are commiting suicide by cutting themselves open, that is called Harakiri, more formally and commonly known as Seppeku. Seppeku translates from Japanese to English as "Ritual Suicide". Harakiri literally meens "Belly Cutting".
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

History Japanese history and archaeology: articles, news, and comments
9 10 11
Replies
257
Views
62K
thomas
Samurai were predominantly Ainu?
2 3
Replies
51
Views
65K
sumosonic
S
H
History Best Book on Japanese History?
2
Replies
30
Views
35K
Hiroshi66
H
The Samurai, Bushido, and Other Things
2
Replies
49
Views
30K
eddieTee
E
Horses in Japan; the samurai's preferred breed of horse?
Replies
8
Views
31K
Tokis-Phoenix
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…