The title character of “The Twilight Samurai” is not quite like any samurai we’ve seen in films before. And that has everything to do with the movie’s charm.
His name is Seibei (played by Hiroyuki Sanada, from “The Ring”), a widower saddled with two small children and a dotty mother. He doesn’t make his living by the sword. Um, actually, he had to hock his sword. He makes his living as a bean-counter at a storehouse in his village.
Seibei is so sloppy and unwashed that he earns the teasing of his co-workers. His boss reprimands him for smelling so bad.
How can this stinky samurai be redeemed? That is the pleasure of director Yoji Yamada’s film, which takes a quietly observant approach. This is like “The Last Samurai” rendered on a tiny, slyly humorous scale.
First Seibei must defend his childhood sweetheart (Rie Miyazawa), recently divorced, from the aggression of her husband, a drunken fool. Turns out Seibei’s samurai skills are still keen, a fact not lost on his astonished friends. This showdown sequence instantly became one of my favorite scenes of movie year 2004: athletic, precise, and a rebuke to the fast-cutting style of some martial-arts pictures.
The clan that runs Seibei’s village, newly aware of his talents, then orders him to execute a stubborn man who has refused to commit hara-kiri. (It’s bad form to decline to kill yourself in feudal Japan, evidently.) Seibei doesn’t want to kill anybody, but he has no choice.
This sequence, as Seibei enters the house where the condemned man is waiting, is another fascinating, stately set-piece. Before they fight, the two adversaries must sit down and have a conversation about all of this, and the air inside the dingy house hangs with a heavy sense of sadness and anticipation. This film really takes its time to create its effects.
Director Yamada, who is in his 70s, is best known in Japan for making dozens of sentimental comedies about a traveling peddler. “Twilight Samurai” is somewhat sentimental, too – it’s told from the perspective of one of Seibei’s daughters, recalling the events of years past.
But Yamada earns his sentiment. The film is beautifully shot, carefully acted, and paced with such confidence that you know whatever happens is going to be worth it.
“Twilight Samurai” swept the 2003 Japanese equivalent of the Oscars, and was a nominee in the foreign-language category of the Academy Awards earlier this year. Devotees of Asian cinema and summer-movie fans alike should find this lovely effort a very satisfying break from the multiplex.
“The Twilight Samurai” HHHH
Very satisfying: In a feudal village, an unkempt samurai (Hiroyuki Sanada) must brush off his long-dormant skills to defend his childhood sweetheart. (In Japanese, with English subtitles.)
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for violence.
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“The Twilight Samurai” HHHH
Very satisfying: In a feudal village, an unkempt samurai (Hiroyuki Sanada) must brush off his long-dormant skills to defend his childhood sweetheart. (In Japanese, with English subtitles.)
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for violence.
Now showing: Varsity.
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