The Last Samurai (1977)
The Last Samurai (1977)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 02:32:04 | 7,55 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, French
Genre: Action, Drama
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | 02:32:04 | 7,55 Gb
Audio: Japanese AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, French
Genre: Action, Drama
Set during the 19th-century social upheaval that helped bring three centuries of shogunate rule to its knees, The Last Samurai follows Toranosuke (a physically and dramatically impressive Takahashi, former star of Seijun Suzuki's Fighting Elegy and Tattooed Life), a paragon of the valiant samurai who is confused by the changes happening around him. His codes tell him to defend the shogunate on the side of the Shinsengumi militia, but his teacher (Tamura of Yasuzo Masumura's Hoodlum Soldier series) has already defected to the other side and tells him it's time to lay down the sword and look toward the future. When the latter stealthily arranges for Toranosuke to meet the beautiful Reiko (Matsuzaka), the warrior's doubt begin to grow.
IMDB
“The Last Samurai (1977)” does not star Tom Cruise, although the few people in the west who have had the fortune to see this movie likely learned of this through the Tom Cruise vehicle. It's really a shame this film hasn't had more exposure. It is a very good film, if imperfect, and it deals with the end of the samurai age in an incredibly moving and unique way. Indeed, I believe someone involved in 2003's “The Last Samurai” had to have seen the film. Both deal with the same concept, have some similar shots and…well, that's it. It's not THAT similar, but there are moments where it's hard not to compare the two. Whichever is better is quite irrelevant, as both are flawed masterpieces. The difference is everyone knows the Tom Cruise film, while samurai buffs need to discover the 1977 film.
The Last Samurai (1977)
![The Last Samurai (1977)]()
Sugi Toranusuke (Hideki Takahashi) is a highly skilled Ronin who…Actually, before I began, know that this is an epic in the most flawed sense. For the first 30 minutes, I had no idea what the plot was. It's just about people interacting with other people. The scenario is that the Tokugawa regime is beginning to fall and Toranusuke's friends become involved in both sides. Toranusuke wants to fight, but he isn't sure for whom, as either way he's going to be forced to fight a friend. Instead, he opts to get married and try to settle down for a normal life, but the way of the warrior is doomed to catch up with him.
The Last Samurai (1977)
![The Last Samurai (1977)]()
I almost want to call “The Last Samurai” a classic case of style over substance, but that's not really accurate. The film does have character development and emotions tend to run high. Seriously, samurai cry, throw temper tantrums and laugh a lot in this movie. However, I think everyone will take note of the films style over its substance. The movie is just gorgeous in every sense. The scenery is amazing and the cinematography captures all of that in all its glory. Every shot is framed with exquisite detail. In fact, that's what stood out to me the most. Kenji Misumi is a stellar director in general, but sometimes he's just a bit too clinical for my tastes. There are times where he has a few stand out moments, but the rest is acceptable or just tolerable. That's not a bad thing, but “The Last Samurai” is a two and a half hour movie that never wastes a single shot. Every aspect of every scene looks great. The fight choreography is some of the best that I've seen for the time. Part of its success is that it looks like people are really fighting, and the camera knows how to capture it. I don't feel I'm doing the film justice, but I will say this: “The Last Samurai (1977)” is probably the best 'looking' samurai feature that I've ever seen. It has the craftsmanship of a Kurosawa picture and the artistry of a Gosha picture. This was the last film Misumi did before he passed away and he clearly chose to go all out with it. For all the films flaws, lack of inspiration would not be one of them.
The Last Samurai (1977)
![The Last Samurai (1977)]()
One thing that “The Last Samurai” has that the bulk of its contemporaries lack is strong lighting. Even in the night, the film never becomes too dark. Even other great classics like “Goyokin” are hard to see at times. So this was rather refreshing. The score is done by Akira Ifukube, the man who's known primarily for “Gojira” (Godzilla). I personally suspect that Ifukube wrote three or four different scores and rehashed them for the bulk of his filmography. If you've seen one of his movies, you probably will recognize a few tracks here. Luckily, those three or four tracks are awesome and I never get tired of hearing them. You could put this guys music in anything and it will be awesome. Even “Twilight” would be epic if Akira Ifukube's music played in the background.
The Last Samurai (1977)
![The Last Samurai (1977)]()
The film also has lots of fresh ideas. I love how we get to see Japan evolve throughout the entire movie. It opens with a standard samurai setting, but as the revolution commences, we see it become more and more westernized. One of the earlier scenes has a character walking across a bridge in full samurai attire. The last scene has him dressed in full western attire. It gives the film strong thematic material and honestly, I'm surprised more samurai films didn't exploit this. “The Last Samurai (2003)” also used the concept, but I was mixed about how it was used. That film celebrated the image of the samurai, overlooking that in reality they tended to be bastards. This one is more neutral. The samurai age thrived and eventually died. If there's any criticism to be found, it's in the fact that the 'last samurai' were unable to adapt and wasted their lives for it. But even then, the film seems to be telling us that there are two sides to every story. Indeed, the 'last samurai' might've been criticized for it, but they also contained more good guys. So you can take from it what you want.
The Last Samurai (1977)
![The Last Samurai (1977)]()
The actors are all very good, with Hideki Takahashi delivering the strongest performance. Ken Ogata is more entertaining as the wild Hanjiro, but Hideki Takahashi gets the most to do. But this is where the problems arise. I really felt that Misumi was so focused on the film from a directors standpoint that he lost focus from a writers standpoint (it was the first time he wrote a film). It has so many characters that it has no idea how to use them. The major aspect of the tragedy is how these friends are torn apart by war, but they only are seen together in one scene, so a lot of its impact is lost. Furthermore, the film is full of filler it did not need. I'd even argue that at least 30 minutes of the film couldn've been trimmed out, and none of its impact would be lost. I was especially baffled by pointless additions like the protagonist sleeping with the chick who would go on to be Hanjiro's love interest. Why was that even there? They literally do nothing with that. The imperfections of “The Last Samurai” arise from Kenji Misumi's self indulgence.
The Last Samurai (1977)
![The Last Samurai (1977)]()
With that said, I'm totally fine with Misumi over indulging himself since it meant that 90% of this film is amazing. It's really something that needs to be watched to be understood, because I've yet to see a review (including my own) that does it justice. The script has a lot of padding and it doesn't flesh out the relationships enough, but its rich with substantial material. More notably, every single scene in the film looks outstanding. As I said, it's probably the best looking samurai film out there. It also contains some of the best sword fights, and there are quite a few of them too. So even if it is flawed, it's strengths make the film worth hunting down. I certainly don't regret spending the money that I did! I was criticized for my review of "Valhalla Rising", where I my complaints don't seem to gel with my compliments. Misumi's self indulgence both leads to the movies strengths as well as its weaknesses, but I do believe the strengths vastly outweigh the weaknesses.
The Last Samurai (1977)
The Last samurai put men and their beliefs in front of History. For all this samurais, the most difficult thing was to accept to move on, to think about the future… even if the Meiji’s era is still haunted by the past. Between bitterness and nostalgia, men are living through past stories, epic stories. Misumi has directed a brilliant and quite pessimistic movie, where men prefer to survive alone rather than dying for ideas, for liberty, for History. As the original title says: “Wolf, Chop the Setting Sun!”.
The Last Samurai (1977)
Special Features:
- Who are the last samurai? (08:08): Fabrice Arduini, journalist and film programmer at the House of Culture of Japan. Brief historical reminders, forces, personalities and motivations of four samurai narrated in voice-over clips from the film.
- Interview with Masanori Sanada and Nozawa Kazuma (07:39): the producer to Katsu Prod. and biographer of K. Misumi separately evoke the context and conditions of production and filming.
- Filmography: director.
- Photo gallery: 21 photos of the film.
The Last Samurai (1977)
Many Thanks to Original uploader.
If you want to download it, but found out that links are dead,
just leave a comment or PM me!
just leave a comment or PM me!
No More Mirrors.