Written by Yoji Yamada, Shuhei Fujisawa and Yoshitaka Asama
Starring Hiroyuki Sanada and Rei Miyazawa
Japan, 2002
As Stefan from SNL would say, this movie has everything. Family drama, action, suspense and... of course, romance.
Towards the end of the feudal era in Japan, a low-level samurai finds himself taking care of his mother, who has dementia, and caring for his children as a single father, as his wife died young. With no one to look after him he starts to let little things like hygiene and the state of his clothing slide, and he never has time to go out with the other samurais after work.
Change comes into his life when his best pal's sister, who is also a childhood friend and long-time crush, is threatened by her drunken and abusive ex-husband, and he agrees to fight to defend her and her family's honor. One of the film's best scenes follows in which the samurai, not wanting to actually kill anyone, succeeds in besting his lethal opponent with just a stick. It's awesome.
So seems like he should hook up with the sister, right? Naw, he doesn't think he's good enough for her. He's already been through it once with his wife, he's got kids and a mom to take care, she deserves a better shot. So, she moves on. That is, until, the local warlords charge him with the mission of assassinating a fellow samurai, and he doesn't know where to turn for support other than the true love he has denied himself.
This is one of those great movies where it's not only beautiful to look at but it also has a totally satisfying story (even if it's bittersweet) and never stops being entertaining. The main character is so lovable and badass, all at once, that you get more out of one movie than you'd normally get out of a dozen. And, you never know quite what's going to happen -- is the samurai's mission a suicide mission? Or will he live to see retirement? I won't give it away.
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