Leofwine_draca THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI is a moving drama about a poor samurai struggling to make ends meet for his family in the 19th century. It's a mature and compelling, slow paced and expertly directed with a nice focus on character over action or incident. In fact, it did well enough to garner a 'best foreign film' nomination at the Oscars, so it can't be bad. Distinctly old-fashioned and as unwilling to move with the times as the samurai himself is, this is a film fan's film, a movie that embraces all the good things about modern cinema.Hiroyuki Sanada is one of my favourite Japanese actors. He started out as a protégé of Sonny Chiba's, cutting his teeth on a number of ninja and action epics that brought him worldwide fame. Now that he's older, in his 40s, he's regarded as a fine character actor, appearing in everything from RING to SUNSHINE. His role in THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI might well be the best of his career; indeed, he embodies his character so well that it appears he was born to play it. That's not to pour criticism on the rest of the cast, who are all very good, it's just that Sanada lives and breathes his role in this film and every time he appears on screen, and you can't take your eyes off him.Director Yoji Yamada has been making films since the early '60s and his experience and professionalism shows. This is a film with a bit of everything: it's a story of human relationships and of love; it's a bitingly realistic film that explores territory usually ignored in period Japanese movies (the mentally ill, for instance); it looks at class and class structure and what makes a man. It also contains an extended duel at the climax which is one of the longest-running and most painful I've ever seen; samurai fights are usually over in a matter of seconds, but this set-piece runs for nearly half an hour and is a great two-hander, one of the best. In the end, THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI is a fine movie and a film up there with the best of Kurosawa.

Giorgos Trou The film was very good, even though I expected it to be better. It is well directed and I especially liked the protagonist's performance. It's a bold drama piece, focusing on the characters' thoughts and feelings.What most people expect from a samurai film is bloody fights with katana, but this movie has little action. Thus some may call it boring. Perhaps the second fight scene could be a little more impressive, but the first battle is really nice.All in all, Twilight Samurai is a nice drama. I highly recommend watching it late in the night, due to its quiet atmosphere and interesting plot.

ebiros2 As an Asian movie affectionado, this movie was hard to pass up. As seen from the high ratings, this is an excellent movie. This was the first movie made by director Yoji Yamada on a novel by Shuhei Fujisawa. This was also the first authentic samurai movie he's directed, and reportedly it took him over 10 years of planning, and over a year of historic research to complete this film. This movie was based on two other novels by Shuhei Fujisawa called Takemitsu Shimatsu, and Iwaibito Sukehachi.It seems strange that a story that is based on such a foreign culture gets universally accepted by people around the world. What part of the life of Seibei has such appeal is a mystery to me. Artistry of director Yoji Yamada is undeniable. He makes the finest samurai movie that's not seen in recent years. Indeed without him, Japanese period piece movies would be missing the artistry it should have.This is the first of Yoji Yamada's successful series of samurai movies based on Shuhei Fujisawa's novel. The movie won Japanese Academy Award in all divisions which was the second time in Japanese movie history since "Shall we Dance". To me, the ending was little weak, but it was a very entertaining movie to watch.

princebansal1982 Though the movie name is The Twilight Samurai, it is not really a samurai film. In fact it reminded me of movies of Yasujiro Ozu, who is one of my top directors. It has the same calm pace, subtle acting and sweet characters without any posturing associated with other typical samurai movies.The movie doesn't seems to be shot in 2002, In fact while watching the movie I though it was filmed in 50's. There is only one real battle and that is near the end of the movie. Even the battle is quite realistic and not overdone.Like in Ozu's movies, interactions with different characters is what makes this movie so interesting, the other office workers, meeting with the king, the kids, childhood friend Tomoe etc. Main dramatic element is provided by internal struggles of Seibei Iguchi, how he sacrifices for his kids and how he refuses to conform and how he doesn't do what is expected of him if he thinks it will hurt others.