I saw The Last Samurai the other night and must say that I was surprisingly impressed. That’s not to say I didn’t think I was going to enjoy the movie — it’s just that I’m not a fan of Tom Cruise persay. His previous movies haven’t exactly sparked or peaked my interest due to his bleak performances.

Despite this pit-nicking, his performance in The Last Samurai was intense to say the least. His range of emotion exerted in various sequences made for a stunning performance. Especially impressive was Ken Wantabe, a famous actor from Japan, who according to various resources has been playing samurai warriors for the past 20 years. He is Japan’s Tom Hanks respectively and because of his excellent performance you really feel for the character.

The movie, directed by Edward Zwick, is a mixture of intense, epic emotion and typical Hollywood writing (campy and witty dialogue and over-played emotion, etc.) However, what makes the movie shine altogether is not only the performances but the cinematography — which ironically the bulk of the film was shot in New Zealand and not Japan. This decision was partly due to the fact that Japan has dramatically evolved since the mid to late 1800s. Shooting on location in New Zealand allowed the crew to dress the scenes in accordance to that era.

While not as epic and rich as Return of the King, The Last Samurai still deserves a viewing, if not two. The interactions between the characters in addition to the Buddhist philosophy of the Asian culture make for an entertaining if not somewhat spiritual experience.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2004 at 1:04 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.