Comments on: The Last Samurai – Movie Review

By: kj_maeda

kj_maeda — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:47:31 +0000

I'm a Japanese. This movie closely shows an authentic Samurai's image who we have. Samurai lives only for his himself honer regardless of his life. It doesn't matter for Emperor, love and his status, I think.
In this movie, Katsumoto is shown according to the image of Takamori Saigo. But Katsumoto in this movie doesn't deserve Takamori Saigo. Takamori Saigo is so much far greater than Katsumoto. Nobody including me will be not able to know the mind of Takamori Saigo because he didn't leave anything about his life at all, no book, no picture. Just be able to know about the trail of the greatness what he did, told by his camps and his enemies.

By: stephanieebarr

stephanieebarr — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 04:07:57 +0000

And that's cool. Wasted potential is one of those things that *bug* me personally. That doesn't mean it will bug everyone else the same way. I think the world would be a dead bore if we all liked the same things.

By: stephanieebarr

stephanieebarr — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:07:57 +0000

By: stephanieebarr

stephanieebarr — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:07:57 +0000

By: areyouscreening

areyouscreening — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:48:08 +0000

I think I would say that the two movies are equal in terms of what I'm trying to get at. They both tried to do something really interesting. One of them didn't get it, though I'm not as hard on it as you, and the other did.

This would be in contrast to a movie that tries to do something average and fairly lifeless, but succeeds at that. Like, oh... say Mrs. Doubtfire... or on a slightly different bent, most every summer blockbuster ever.

That's the contrast I'm looking at.

By: areyouscreening

areyouscreening — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:48:08 +0000

By: stephanieebarr

stephanieebarr — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:50:02 +0000

Perhaps an example would be Edward Scissorhands, a movie with an asinine premise that ended up charming and quirky and rewatchable. I'm much more impressed with that than a bigger better movie that had a great concept and flushed it away.

By: stephanieebarr

stephanieebarr — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:50:02 +0000

By: areyouscreening

areyouscreening — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:56:44 +0000

I think at some point we might be arguing the same side of things somehow.

There might be a semantic problem going on.

A movie that made a great deal out of very little what? Potential?

If it had very little potential, I wouldn't really say that it was ever trying to do something really great or interesting.

Sort of puzzle where each of us is going, and how different the views actually are.

Shogun, however, is definitely great, and worth every minute.

By: areyouscreening

areyouscreening — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:56:44 +0000

By: stephanieebarr

stephanieebarr — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:31:47 +0000

I, personally, have the opposite reaction to wasted potential. In general, a movie that made a great deal out of very little impresses me more (and generally entertains me more) than one that squandered a great potential - and it's less frustrating.

I remember this film as unremarkable (given as a gift). It wasn't a bad movie to watch, but I've never been tempted to watch it again.

I did, however, adore the 10 hour miniseries on Shogun (which wasn't entirely fictional as there was a similar individual and many events were also similar to events in that time frame).

By: stephanieebarr

stephanieebarr — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:31:47 +0000