Customer Reviews

The Last Samurai [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A Japanese gazillionaire (John Fujioka) believes that a samurai ancestor of his went to Africa to spread Buddhism and that his spirit is still alive, so he goes there to find him. He goes on a safari with another gazillionaire, an Arab who sort of runs the country (John Saxon doing a Maximillian Schell/Omar Sharif impersonation). He hires a borderline nutcase Vientam veteran mercenary (Lance Henrickson) as a helicopter pilot. Each of these men has a partner, For the Japanese, it is his loyal assistant; for the Arab, it is his beautiful but slowly dying American wife; for the American, it his young English girlfriend. They are joined by a former fellow soldier of the American.

There is some betrayal involving the selling of weapons to a rebel General (Henry Cele, "Shaka Zulu"), some surface discussion of the meaning of honor, and a lot of African countryside. The Japanese keeps seeing images of his ancestor. The General is played almost the same as the actor had played Shaka. The American has 'Nam flashbacks.

There is a kendo sequence on a beach at the top of the film that is some of the most realistic swordfighting I've seen in a movie. The film ends with a more action, but certain flaws in continuity and film making make it hard to accept what's happening.

The end of the film is supposed to be a resolution of the various issues that the characters had regarding honor, but the somehow the ambitiousness of the message is outweighed by the weakness of the film making. The script is a sparse, depending on brief profound statements. Everybody, it seems, has a brief profound, revealing, statement. The camera angles chosen for certain juxtaposed shots don't really work; make it difficult to follow the action. There are a few moments in the action where one can say "that's stupid. Why didn't he just..."

If the Japanese Martial Arts, discussions of honor, ancestral spirits, and African revolutions don't interest you, subtract a star or two. Otherwise, this is interesting to have seen once.

For the first fifteen minutes or so I thought maybe the story was setting up to unfold a good storyline and action would start jumping off. But it gradually dawned on me that the story was just going to muddle on through at the same boring pace, except for a minute or two near the end, which, by then was anti-climactic.

Do yourself a favor, by buying something else..

Oh boy. I put this film in the "Can-I-have-another-hit-off- that-doobie?" category at Joe's Haus of Weird Film. It aspires to art. It is full of surreal images and inexplicable conversations. It's a Zen movie. You have simply to be, the film has simply to be. All will be revealed if your make of your mind a blank slate. Not.

Japanese businessman goes in search of his ancestor and gets caught in the middle of a revolution in Africa. Huh? No, really. That's what it's about. I think. I'm still not certain. Bottom line here is that if you try to take this puppy too seriously, you're doomed. I suggest that you put your critical faculties on hold and watch it as a nice bite of mind candy.

I could not watch this movie since the disc would not play. It seems DVD's made in Europe won't play in units in the United States.

This movie really suprised me. Very well acted. It is one of the most beautiful display of the japanese samurai I have ever seen. It displays honor, courage, and fighting knowing you are going to die.

the movie was very slow. not much action and little info was given on the lost ancestor.