Chefelf.com Night Life: Go see The Last Samurai - Chefelf.com Night Life

Jump to content

Star Wars Fan Convention

  • (2 Pages)
  • +
  • 1
  • 2

Go see The Last Samurai if you want good sword fighting

#1 User is offline   njamilla Icon

  • Level Boss
  • PipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 283
  • Joined: 02-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Washington, DC
  • Interests:Black belts: aikido, kendo, iaido, jodo. 1987 World Fencing Championships, World University Games participant. Writer: novelist, freelancer. Interestes: Renaissance, religious history, turtles.
  • Country:United States

Posted 05 December 2003 - 10:55 PM

Just saw The Last Samurai. Some great sword fighting. Some excellent two-sword fighting that puts AOTC to shame.

The story over-romanticizes the samurai but still a great story. Riflemen win, and should have won. And while the Emperor pays homage to the samurai for preserving Japanese traditions, true historians know that if Japan were to become a greater power then rebellious samurai had to be put down. One thing they overlook is that 200 years earlier, Daimyo who won the battle of Sekigahara depended heavily on muskets. Still great movie. Bloody, realistic, entertaining.
Author: Sword Fighting in the Star Wars Universe.
0

#2 User is offline   Ninja Duck Icon

  • Cheer up, emo duck.
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Moderators
  • Posts: 1,912
  • Joined: 30-October 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Thrillsville
  • Country:United States

Posted 05 December 2003 - 11:24 PM

Do the makers of the movie confess that it's loosely based on James Clavell's novel Shogun, or do we have an opportunity to sue?
0

#3 User is offline   barend Icon

  • Anchor Head Anchor Man
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Crappy News Team
  • Posts: 11,839
  • Joined: 12-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Nieuw Holland
  • Interests:The Beers of Western Europe, Cognac, and constantly claiming the world would have been a better place if Napoleon had won.
  • Country:Australia

Posted 07 December 2003 - 08:39 PM

i just can't take Tom Cruze seriously in an action roll. especially as a samuri!!!
:yuck:
0

#4 User is offline   Jordan Icon

  • Tummy Friend
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 3,161
  • Joined: 31-October 03
  • Location:Mars
  • Interests:I have none.
  • Country:Ethiopia

Posted 08 December 2003 - 02:55 AM

I heard the movie was brilliant. One writer said that Cruise is worthy of an oscar. I liked him in Top Gun, I felt that was worthy of a nomination at the very least.
Oh SMEG. What the smeggity smegs has smeggins done? He smeggin killed me. - Lister of Smeg, space bum
0

#5 User is offline   Enhasa Icon

  • Henchman
  • Pip
  • Group: Junior Members
  • Posts: 84
  • Joined: 06-December 03
  • Location:Summerville, SC
  • Interests:I’m sorry, but all questions must be submitted in writing.

Posted 08 December 2003 - 05:14 PM

In many ways, The Last Samurai is Dances with Wolves in a different setting, but what a resplendent setting it is. The beautiful sunsets, colorful clothing, and wonderful locations make you wonder why anyone would want to trade in the old way of the Samurai for the dull, mechanical appearance of the American soldiers.

In most respects, the movie is mindful of Japanese culture. Rather than having everyone flying around on wires and hanging off of the tops of trees, it depicts Samurai swordplay as an art and, simultaneously, an effective tool of combat. It spends a large amount of time showing the various Samurai, along with Algren, honing their skills with the sword.

Technical aspects of the kenjutsu and jujitsu are terrific, nothing over glorified or flashy, just down to earth technique. There are a few etiquette things that were overlooked (such as not breaking the seal on the sword when it is drawn), but they didn’t deter me.


A paranoid Tom Cruise suddenly wonders why he’s the only Samurai dressed in a flamboyant red outfit.
Jacqueline

My Home Page

videogamesprites.net


“All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my belief! ...at least for now.”
0

#6 User is offline   barend Icon

  • Anchor Head Anchor Man
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Crappy News Team
  • Posts: 11,839
  • Joined: 12-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Nieuw Holland
  • Interests:The Beers of Western Europe, Cognac, and constantly claiming the world would have been a better place if Napoleon had won.
  • Country:Australia

Posted 08 December 2003 - 06:07 PM

most importantly....

it's a terrible name for a film. i don't care how good it might be, i won't see it. he's the last anything, he's just the first american samuri, and 'american samuri' would also be a terrible name for a film.

they should call it 'tom cruze as a samuri - can you stomach it?'
0

#7 User is offline   sinister grinner Icon

  • Soothsayer
  • PipPipPipPip
  • Group: Junior Members
  • Posts: 567
  • Joined: 21-November 03

Posted 08 December 2003 - 10:35 PM

why not something to do with the code of the samurai, or how he is technically a traitor. he is isnt he. i kinda want to see that movie.

"tom cruze in "samurai". " wink.gif
Thirteen and a half.
Twelve jurors,
one judge,
and half a chance.
0

#8 User is offline   rogue_scholar Icon

  • New Cop
  • Group: Junior Members
  • Posts: 19
  • Joined: 12-November 03

Posted 10 December 2003 - 10:43 AM

QUOTE (njamilla @ Dec 5 2003, 10:55 PM)
The story over-romanticizes the samurai . . .

In what way? I don't think I'm going to go see the film (I'll wait till it comes out on DVD), but I'm still curious.
0

#9 User is offline   Jordan Icon

  • Tummy Friend
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 3,161
  • Joined: 31-October 03
  • Location:Mars
  • Interests:I have none.
  • Country:Ethiopia

Posted 13 December 2003 - 04:21 AM

I just watched the last samurai. I thought it was brilliant. NO CG, well casted actors, NO long boring sex scenes which make you feel uncomfortable in the theatre.

2 thumbs up from Jordan


QUOTE
A paranoid Tom Cruise suddenly wonders why he’s the only Samurai dressed in a flamboyant red outfit.


There was an entire legion of samurai in that scene that wore red. They did not glorify Tom. It was well balanced.

Over romantized? A tiny bit. But it help show the contrast between men who put their heart and soul into an art, and men who shoot guns for pay.
Oh SMEG. What the smeggity smegs has smeggins done? He smeggin killed me. - Lister of Smeg, space bum
0

#10 User is offline   A Mighty Pirate Icon

  • Level Boss
  • PipPipPip
  • Group: Junior Members
  • Posts: 253
  • Joined: 31-October 03

Posted 13 December 2003 - 07:00 PM

"The Last Samurai" Is a term, you retard. It doesn't remark that TOM CRUISE is the last samurai, it refers to the last days of the samurai, before they were beaten out by Musketmen.
Booze-fueled paragon of pointless cruelty and wanton sadism.
0

#11 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

  • Canada's Next Top Model.
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Head Moderator
  • Posts: 3,382
  • Joined: 01-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:In Your Dreams
  • Interests:I like stuff.
  • Country:Canada

Posted 14 December 2003 - 02:40 AM

Actually, "The Last Samurai" refers to an individual, Saigo Takamori, who is to Japanese what Robert E Lee is to Americans, a nobel warrior drawn into civil war against the very country whose honour he hoped to uphold.

I have no idea whether the movie does this character justice, but I figure just by throwing an American into the story, and by telling the story through his eyes, they've blown it. Hollywood has no faith that American audiences will ever be able to watch movies about foreigners unless they've got an American tourist on board to keep it normal.
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).
0

#12 User is offline   njamilla Icon

  • Level Boss
  • PipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 283
  • Joined: 02-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Washington, DC
  • Interests:Black belts: aikido, kendo, iaido, jodo. 1987 World Fencing Championships, World University Games participant. Writer: novelist, freelancer. Interestes: Renaissance, religious history, turtles.
  • Country:United States

Posted 14 December 2003 - 11:33 AM

The movie over romanticizes the samurai in that they are portrayed as the perfect indigenous people of the Yamato people of the Japanese islands. In the movie their way of life is better than the modernization of Japan. Leaders, at that time, knew they could have been easily invaded by foreign powers if they didn’t modernize their armies. Several Western fleets put down Japanese coastal defenses prior to the Meiji Restoration (i.e. the return of the Emperor’s nominal power). So Emperor Meiji and his government knew that they had to adopt Western military and diplomatic protocols and arms in order to prevent Western powers from possibly invading during a turn in diplomatic relations.

The Satsuma rebellion was a political reaction to two things: 1) the abolishment of samurai customs (i.e. top knot and wearing of the daisho, the long and short sword) and 2) the secret transport of Imperial weapons to Satsuma in case it became necessary to attack Saigo Takamori and his followers.

Saigo Takamori was considered a patriot who helped establish the Meiji government by defeating Tokugawa forces of the shogun ten years before the Satsuma rebellion. When he heard of anti-samurai laws, he “retired” from the government and returned to his province in Kyushu, the most southern island, almost the furthest from Tokyo, the new capital. His rebellion – the last of many – cannot be taken out of the context that it was an attempted coup d’états to remove the Emperor’s cabinet, not a popular rebellion of the people against a tyrannical or anti-traditional government. During the evolution towards a new government, the shogun, before being defeated, entertained notions of leading a bicameral government in which nobles were in the higher house and samurai in the lower house. No where was there room for the lower classes who were deemed unfit to govern. If the rebellion had succeeded, it’s possible there would have been no middle class in Japan, the powerhouse it the country’s stability and economic wealth.

I’ve no problem with a fictitious story of a Westerner becoming friends of the famed Dai Saigo (the Great Saigo). James Clavel’s book is based on a similar story of a Westerner penetrating Japanese culture and participating in its politics.
Author: Sword Fighting in the Star Wars Universe.
0

#13 User is offline   Enhasa Icon

  • Henchman
  • Pip
  • Group: Junior Members
  • Posts: 84
  • Joined: 06-December 03
  • Location:Summerville, SC
  • Interests:I’m sorry, but all questions must be submitted in writing.

Posted 14 December 2003 - 12:21 PM

I agree with njamilla’s assessment.

I think that we sometimes forget that samurai were not saints -- they fought for power, wealth, and glory in the name of their lords. Many commoners feared the samurai, seeing them as people living under dictatorships see the police.

The westernization of Japan -- something that could not be prevented -- was immediately seen by the samurai as the end of their dominance. Like most struggles, there are two reasons: public reasons and private reasons. Thus, tradition and culture were given as reasons for fighting the modernization of Japan, but power played the biggest role in that rebellion.
Jacqueline

My Home Page

videogamesprites.net


“All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my belief! ...at least for now.”
0

#14 User is offline   barend Icon

  • Anchor Head Anchor Man
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Crappy News Team
  • Posts: 11,839
  • Joined: 12-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Nieuw Holland
  • Interests:The Beers of Western Europe, Cognac, and constantly claiming the world would have been a better place if Napoleon had won.
  • Country:Australia

Posted 14 December 2003 - 06:36 PM

QUOTE (A Mighty Pirate @ Dec 13 2003, 07:00 PM)
"The Last Samurai" Is a term, you retard. It doesn't remark that TOM CRUISE is the last samurai, it refers to the last days of the samurai, before they were beaten out by Musketmen.

yeah, it's a term like;

'the last action hero'
'the last boy scout'
'the last of the mohicans'
'the last unicorn'

it's over used and consequentially non-sensicle.
(i was just being difficult before) wink.gif
0

#15 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

  • Canada's Next Top Model.
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Head Moderator
  • Posts: 3,382
  • Joined: 01-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:In Your Dreams
  • Interests:I like stuff.
  • Country:Canada

Posted 15 December 2003 - 04:49 AM

QUOTE (barend @ Dec 14 2003, 06:36 PM)
'the last action hero'
'the last boy scout'
'the last of the mohicans'
'the last unicorn'

it's over used and consequentially nonsensical.


I agree it's overused. But from time to time its acceptable to use the adjective in a title, since it can be wonderfully evocative. Consider:

The Last Picture Show
Last Exit to Brooklyn
The Last Days Before the War
Last Year at Marienbad

Your own fine example:

Last of the Mohicans

And this one, The Last Samurai. A great title, but my opinion is the story better be about the last samurai, and not some civil war solidier pointlessly shoved in for flavour. It's true, as Nick points out, that Clavell gave us a Japanese saga through the eyes of an Englishman, but that Englishman never stepped onto a battefield, and in fact played only a minor role in the proceedings. The story was really told through his eyes more than it was a series of his experiences. I still haven't seen THE LAST SAMURAI (holding out for a while just because it's Tom Cruise, and frankly I'd have preferred Jason Biggs to that hack), and I want it to be good, but I am skepticalwhen I look at imdb and I don't see anyone playing Saigo Takomori.

Not making a movie like this actually be about the last samurai is as dumb as what they did with THIRTEEN DAYS, a film about the Cuban missile crisis whose main characer was one of Kennedy's advisors rather than Kennedy himself.
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).
0

  • (2 Pages)
  • +
  • 1
  • 2


Fast Reply

  • Decrease editor size
  • Increase editor size