I finally got to see this last night, and it was wonderful I thought. Tom Cruise has certainly come a long ways from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Set in 1876, this time he plays a semi-retired US Cavalry Captain. A drunk, and generally unhappy person, he reluctantly agrees to go with his former CO to Japan under hire to suppress revolutionaries that are disrupting the progress of Western technological advances there. His qualifications - Cruise's character, Capt. Algrin made a career out of suppressing Indian uprisings in the American West, a career that has left him a lost and lonely man. He is tortured both in his sleep and while he is awake by the memories of what he did in his campaigns against the Red Man.



This time the uprisings are being brought forth by the Samurai, the ancient warriors of Japan's past. Strong parallels are drawn between the Amercan Indians and the Samurai, all through this film. There, in Japan he trains an infantry, but influencial forces in the Japanese government force him to go into combat will an ill-trained army, and are soundly defeated by the Samurai. In the process, Algrin is captured by Katsumoto, the Samurai leader, and not killed because he recognized Agrin as the "Tiger" he once saw in a dream.



For more than a year Algrin was kept captive by Katsumoto, but it wasn't a harsh captivity. Algrin learns a great deal about the ancient culture of Japan, learns to speak the language, and eventually becomes friends with Katsumoto. And for the first time in his life Algrin finds peace among the new people he lives amongst. It's all a wonderful story of an American's discovery of Japan and its people, and that's something a lot of us anime fans can relate to to a certain extent. Personally, I received very little or no formal instruction at all about Japanese culture when I was in school, everything I know I learned on my own. And sadly, it's probably much more than most Americans will ever know.



I liked Algrin's character, because it's always good to see someone recognize their own faults, change, and redeem themself. Katsumoto was very interesting because I was surprised to see how intellectual he was. Normally I would not expect a backwoods tribal leader to be well educated and able to speak English, but I guess he was one of the Emperor's teachers before he was driven out of the palace by men like Omura. The other character I liked was Taka, the sister of Katsumoto, and widow of a man killed by Algrin in the battle. Something new I learned from her. Being part of Japan's traditional culture, she is a very submissive person and cares for her home and family, and at her brother's request, tends to the needs of Algrin while he recovers from his battle wounds and withdrawl from alcoholism. Even though Algrin killed her husband, she does this without ever uttering a word of complaint, at least not to his face anyways. In the film, they described this kind of submissiveness as "discipline", and I never really thought about it that way, and it's so true. American culture nowadays sees this kind of behavior in females as "weakness" and something to be descouraged in favor of more selfish persuits in life. However, Taka is anything but weak. A couple of times she goes to her brother Katsumoto and speaks her mind to him, complaining bitterly about Algrin and his atrocious behavior, saying that she would rather die herself than continue to put up with him. Katsumoto agrees to make Algrin take a bath though. ^_^;; Essentially her discipline of service to her brother, is the same as the Samurai's discipline of service to the Emperor.



If anyone here hasn't seen this, The Last Samurai is well worth the time to do so. Hopefully I haven't spoiled too much for anyone. ^_^;;

Ahh Yes...The Last Samurai. It is a wonderful film indeed.



I am happy you have seen it, Hikaru-san. ^^ I loved this movie. Tom Cruise's portrayal of a Civil War Veteran and soon becoming a samurai was great.



This movie has everything. Action, suspense, and even some romantic drama.



Great great movie!

It's also a theme that's not outdated, even today. From my trips to the Far East, I know that Western culture is still very popular among the people in Japan and other countries. Slowly it continues to overtake the native cultres there, but some parts have already been completely replaced. If you look in the newspaper at the movie theater listings over there, you wouldn't notice anything different from the films running here in the US, they're all the same.