Diagonaldi Very well executed

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

BustedKnees A true master piece in my opinion.Set in the early days of the Meiji Restoration, when power was being returned to the Emperor and Japan was in a period of rapid modernisation, this charming film shows that the choice of accepting change is a very personal one.The main character is a samurai clerk who has moved away from war, and has found delight in spending a lot of time with his daughters. However, when his clan sides with the traditional ruling Shogunate against the Imperial forces, he has to make some very crucial decisions about his life, and his family.Beautifully filmed with a refreshingly slow pace, this is a superbly made film in every way.

Ben Larson Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, it won almost every one of the more than 3 dozen films it was nominated for.It is a film about duty. Eschewing a night of drinking with his buddies after work, Seibei Iguchi (Hiroyuki Sanada) hurries home to care for his senile mother and his young children. Deep in debt from his wife's illness and death, all the work fell on his shoulders.Seibei's life could be better, but he was acutely aware that he was a low status samurai, and would not subject that on anyone, even one who really loved him like Tomoe Iinuma (Rie Miyazawa).A beautiful film, with outstanding cinematography and music. A real tale of true happiness.

peterm1 Twilight Samurai is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen. Absolutely captivating but do not expect the usual samurai movie. Although there are fight scenes this is not what the movie is about. It is a lovingly made story set against the background of the end of the Edo Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji Restoration. A dramatic and chaotic time in Japanese history. After 250 years of peace under the Tokugawa dynasty, Samurai no longer had their traditional roles of defending their warlord masters to fulfill and often worked in more or less menial roles. Here, Sebei is a clerk in the castle warehouse. This is not the only movie made with similar themes by the director Yoji Yamada, but I fancy it is the best. He made three movies all with similar themes - all set in the 1850s, all involving honourable men doing their duty and all involving the defence of women who had been misused or taken advantage of. This is a lovely lyrical, beautiful movie. I especially love the way Yamada lingers on the tiny details of Japanese life in this period. Its almost like watching an intricately carved Ukiyo-e woodblock print by one of the masters like Hokusei or Hiroshge. Pictures of the floating world indeed!

ebiros2 As an Asian movie affectionado, this movie was hard to pass up. As seen from the high ratings, this is an excellent movie. This was the first movie made by director Yoji Yamada on a novel by Shuhei Fujisawa. This was also the first authentic samurai movie he's directed, and reportedly it took him over 10 years of planning, and over a year of historic research to complete this film. This movie was based on two other novels by Shuhei Fujisawa called Takemitsu Shimatsu, and Iwaibito Sukehachi.It seems strange that a story that is based on such a foreign culture gets universally accepted by people around the world. What part of the life of Seibei has such appeal is a mystery to me. Artistry of director Yoji Yamada is undeniable. He makes the finest samurai movie that's not seen in recent years. Indeed without him, Japanese period piece movies would be missing the artistry it should have.This is the first of Yoji Yamada's successful series of samurai movies based on Shuhei Fujisawa's novel. The movie won Japanese Academy Award in all divisions which was the second time in Japanese movie history since "Shall we Dance". To me, the ending was little weak, but it was a very entertaining movie to watch.