*LIVE SHOW* Taste Testing Drinks from 7-11 Japan (feat Natsuki) | *FILM FRIDAY* The Last Samurai (2003)

LIVE SHOW WITH NATSUKI on Abroad Perspective

Saturday at 10pm Japan time!

Aka. Tomorrow.

Join the fun: https://youtu.be/LLDTLdc63Rg

Crack it in the calendar, and come with a drink. It should be a lot of fun!

It’s also quite scary given you never quite know what Natsuki is about to do at any given moment. The man is more thrilling and unpredictable than any Hollywood Film.

EXCEPT perhaps, for today’s Film Friday.

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THE LAST SAMURAI (2003)

Let’s face it. You knew it was coming.

Until now, many of the films I’ve shared with you on Film Friday have been arthouse films - often with lower budgets. Today, I come to you with an unashamedly in-your-face blockbuster, where Tom Cruise singlehandedly leads the Samurai into battle and befriends the Emperor.

Say what you want about The Last Samurai, but it’s undeniably solid entertainment. 

While it’s not overly historically accurate (as far as I know Tom Cruise wasn’t around in the 1850’s), the huge socio-political changes that Japan underwent during it’s turbulent and speedy modernisation make a fantastic backdrop for the battle between old and new; the samurai versus the evil capitalist deviants, portrayed in the film as Japanese tycoons in top hats and angry American Ambassadors selling guns.

Meanwhile the Samurai, led by the heroic Ken Watanabe, chop off the heads of enemies in the name of honour and live in a traditional folk village in the isolated and romantic mountains of rural New Zealand (where the entire film was pretty much shot).

In many ways the film is an easy one to savage; 154 minutes of overdone Japanese tropes (take a shot every time you hear the word ‘honour’) and a plot that involves a white male saviour arriving in Japan and somehow helping the Samurai come to terms with their own identity.

Admittedly, something I’ve failed to do for 8 years now.

To his credit, Tom Cruise’s character somehow masters fluent Japanese in a matter of weeks, just by virtue of moping around a house all day listening to his host chat over bowls of rice every evening, which in itself is quite the feat. Screw language school.

But at the end of the day The Last Samurai is a popcorn flick, with gorgeous visuals of 19th century Japan (some of the best I’ve seen in a movie to date), battles so huge and epic in scale you’ll quickly see where the $140 million budget went and undeniably great performances from Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. 

Ken Watanabe’s character, Lord Katsumoto, is very much the heart and soul of the film. A character who - when he’s not beheading rivals - spends his time meditating, practicing English or trying to boldly convince the Emperor that Samurai swords are still better than gattling guns.

But if watching Cruise and Watanabe charge across a battlefield together in the face of overwhelming odds, or the cries of Tom Cruise repeating the word “SAKE!”, don’t have you on the edge of your seat, nothing will.

Don’t take it too seriously and The Last Samurai is a lot of fun.

Crack out the popcorn and admire one of the most visually stunning portrayals of 19th century Japan seen in a film to date.