What made this difficult to review is that it leaves a lot of questions concerning certain plot element that could either be mishandled or cultural style and filming.
First, in a general sense, this film is extremely touching, deep, soft comical, and strangely action packed, even though you know the samurai fight scenes were just part of acting. What made the most impact is how the protagonist really draws out the audience with his background story, so you can get a sense of his attitude and personality. From the flashback you can tell he was a much different young man back then than the current time in the movie.
The theme is a combination of a soft sadness but then that's where you get the touching moments and come to realize the beauty in sadness, but also in hope and genuine respect. This story in this sense is a masterpiece.
In an analytic, the protagonist, though an actor, literally lived out the 7 codes of bushido - justice, courage, compassion, respect, sincerity, honor, loyalty. So in a strange irony, though he played various samurai roles, he literally is the last samurai in a modern context in real life.
For spoilers, some may not come to understand the theme and impact of the film. Again, it is actually very bushido, which is to live every moment in your life in pursuit of absolute perfection, as such pursuit of the perfect sakura blossom. But in the Japanese sense, this means to always "do the best that you can." This was repeated through the film to the protagonist and he repeated it to his disciple.
And though he retired in the end, inevitably, he was requested by the girl, his disciple, to do one more film. With his arthritis and aging body in pain, the apex climax of the film was the "perfect" ending to his career as he finished the final "one shot" action scene with perfection and ended with his signature "shrimp" death, this time on the big screen. You probably missed it when he did it earlier in one of the beginning shots. That was the point, he did this death scene so many times unnoticed in the background death, but this time as a titular "villain," he was in the limelight.
The final scene brought him much respect, to be recognized in a movie for a wide audience on screen as a character rather than an extra. As a sub theme on how young directors and people looked down on them as nothing but extras and not as actors, this was in a way of redemption that he was indeed an actor even if he had always played an extra. However, this was only for the general audience, as everyone in the film, except the young annoying director, already showed him great respect as an actor. After his final park show, the daughter of Mitsuru gave him a bouquet of flower, as you may remember from the beginning are only given to "actors" not extras.
Anyways, a confusing part of the film is the relationship between the protagonist and his disciple. Thought the massive age gap, but some may think it as at first a romantic interest and through much of the film, there's always that vibe. Yet this never materialized and it makes it questionable in the writing sense, what were they aiming for and thinking? Is it a blunder?
I don't think it is, I think this is more of a cultural thing. In Japanese culture, what elderly are really looking for in terms of love, is respect. And the young disciple had great interest and respect for him, seeing him more than simply a background extra. She saw in him what everyone else dismissed, which was what drew him to reminisce when the first Uzumasa Princess showed him the same respect that he didn't deserve back then as a young man.
So there was a parallelism between Mitsuru and Satsuki role in the story of Kamiyama, obviously presented in the final act with the hair comb. There is a strange romance feel, but it is not the way westerners know it, but a genuine intimate respect.
The more problematic issue with this film is the time editing, it skips and jumps between scenes without telling the audience of the time frame. I suppose we are suppose to imply it from the story. In the beginning it was not that bad in sense, each time they look upon the casting list, you know it is a new day, or maybe several days. But the big one was when Satsuki returned from Tokyo, it was mentioned in the dialog it has been a whole year. In western films, typically there would be a label indicating this to the audience "a year later."
Whether style or not, it does leave some parts confusing until you realize it was in a different time frame. So with this, I had no choice to but take off 1 point as it wasn't just 1 scene, but multiple scenes where it leaves you baffled and wondering what was going on without realizing the lapse of time in the film's story.
But overall, this is a very well made film and the final scene just blows you away. A solid 9.
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