The Last Samurai
Cast: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Tony Goldwyn, Timothy Spall, Koyuki, Hiroyuki Sanada, Billy Connolly, Shichinosuke Nakamura, Masato Harada, Shin Koyamada.
Co-writer/Director: Edward Zwick
Synopsis: Set in the late 1870s, this epic film depicts the beginnings of the modernization of Japan, as the island nation evolved past a feudal society, as symbolized by the eradication of the samurai way of life. We see all this happen from the point of view of an alcoholic Civil War veteran turned Winchester guns spokesman, Captain Nathan Algren (Cruise), who arrives in Japan to train the troops of the emperor, Meiji, as part of a break away from the long-held tradition of relying on employed samurai warriors to protect territories, as the emperor's new army prepares to wipe out the remaining samurai warriors. When Algren is injured in combat and captured by the samurai, he learns about their warrior honor code from their leader, Katsumoto(Watanabe), which forces him to decide which side of the conflict he actually wants to be on... (synopsis courtesy of movies.yahoo.com)

In a nutshell review: While in many ways a great movie, The Last Samurai could have been more, to quote Katsumoto , “all perfect” had it starred another actor other than Tom Cruise. But it’s still ultimately worth seeking out and is one of the best movies this year.

Full Review: The Last Samurai has been one of the movies that I anticipated most this year. Since I knew about it last year, I have been waiting impatiently for this movie to reach the screen. I mean, looking at the details about the movie, they are really ingredients for a perfect movie. First, there is Tom Cruise, an actor whose acting talent has been unfortunately undermined by his fame. He has starred in Vanilla Sky and Minority Report (both my favourites) recently, which are thought provoking movies that do not necessarily always attract large audiences. It shows that Tom Cruise actually dares to take on challenges to make good movies apart from doing formulaic Hollywood blockbuster (like the Mission Impossible sequels). A movie that stars him is definitely worth watching and I think that an Oscar has been overdue for him as well. Secondly, there is academy award winning director Edward Zwick who has directed a classic war movie before “Glory”. Lastly, it’s about Samurais and Japan!! – the potential themes that can be explored by this movie are classic: honour, heroism, tradition vs modernization, redemption and since this is a samurai movie, you are pretty much guaranteed that there would be swordfights and battles as well. There is also a great amount of respect and effort put in by Cruise and Zwick to this movie by casting talented Japanese actors (especially my favourite actor Hiroyuki Sanada who plays Ryuji in The Ring) and allowing much dialogue in the movie to be Japanese. Cruise has also reportedly spent 2 years preparing for this movie, by training the martial arts and speaking Japanese to get the part right. Normally such passions put in by the cast and filmmakers could only result in very good product in the end. Or is it always true?

Well, for the most part, The Last Samurai manages to fulfill its potential to be great. Most of the efforts put in translate very well into the screen. The acting (except for Tom Cruise, which I’ll get to later), cinematography, actions, direction are excellent. The themes that I mentioned above are indeed explored, and surprisingly themes like power, duty and even the future rise of Japan to be a powerful force are included as well. There are even scenes which predict what kind of Government would shape Japan in World War II, and dare I say it, I can even sort of identify the movie to the current situation in Iraq where the American government is trying to “modernise” the country. The movie also balances the drama and action in such a way that it delivers both to equally satisfying result. Overall, the movie should have been perfect. Too bad that the main problem with the movie is the very man who got this project going: Tom Cruise.

I sincerely didn’t want to criticize Tom Cruise, after all the efforts that he put into the movie. However, he just falls into the usual syndrome of acting as himself; in other words, when you watch him, you see him as Tom Cruise, not as the character that he plays (this also happens when I first watched Minority Report). Don’t get me wrong, I think he tried his best already and he has scenes in which he show how well he can act like the scene where he craves for Sake while getting treatment for his injury and his scenes with Taka (played by Koyuki) when he apologise to her for killing her husband. However, this is not a performance that will get him even an oscar nomination. He is once again a victim of his own popularity which resulted in his efforts going down the drain. As a result, it can actually be very hard to take the movie very seriously. I mean, you get to see Tom Cruise as himself learning how to fight with swords, learn Japanese and even romances* the woman whose husband he killed all within 6 months? The movie could actually turn out to be a joke unintentionally for some casual viewers and that is a pity because they would lose sight on what the movie is really about. And also, some scenes between Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe (who plays the samurai leader Katsumoto) are very awkward because they are spoken in English. There are lines which are meant to be serious and meaningful but instead made me laugh when I hear it, and that’s sad too. Last but not least, there is also something about the direction that I think could have been done better. Now, Edward Zwick has done a fabulous job with the picture. He practically practices the art of storytelling – “show, not tell”. I also think that he has studied many Japanese films to film this in a very quite, restrained manner similar to many Japanese films (the horror ones in particular). While this subtle approach is definitely always recommended, however, I wish that he could have been less subtle in his approach. There is a scene where Katsumoto meets The Emperor and I think that the scene have some meaning to it but because Zwick choose to shot it like it is, the meaning is open to interpretation. While normally I like this approach, I really wished that he could have just hammered the meaning to us. But this directorial issue is minor compared with Tom Cruise issue. As much as I hate to say it, I think if he loved to make this movie so much, he should sacrifice his role to a more suitable actor and just lend his support as producer.

All things said and done, The Last Samurai is still a great, if somewhat disappointing movie. Definitely recommended if there is no other better picture out there.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Official website: www.lastsamurai.com .

*- actually the relationship between Algren and Taka is very subtly portrayed in the movie, they are not shown clearly to be a very romantic one, just with the potential of it only. However, I do point this out because of my fear of people misunderstanding the whole thing as Tom Cruise always gets the girl issue.

PS: Shin Koyamada (who plays Katsumoto’s son) made a great debut here, he can beat Legolas any day in Archery =P.