(Tasogare Seibei)Yamada Yoji, Japan, 2002
3.5 out of 4 stars
This is either the world's slowest action movie, or it contains the best couple of fight scenes you could ever expect to see in a historical romance, but either way, it's a surprisingly effective film because of, not in spite of, its languorous pace. Through occasional flashback voice overs, a woman tells us about her samurai father, Seibei, who raised her and her sister after their mother died and found, perhaps to his surprise, a contented, if difficult existence in which he was focused not on raising his meager status or on drinking at the bar with his co-workers (he seems to be an accountant, actually), but on taking care of them. Seibei's priorities, however, generate some negative attention from his superiors and colleagues alike. is If this doesn't sound like enough to base a plot on, there's also a female childhood friend involved, in addition to the occasional hints that the age of the samurai is very quickly nearing an end, leading to questions about everyone's role in society.
This may well sound like a downer, but actually, it is a very hopeful and engaging movie, and when people make choices that are, to put it lightly, not exactly audience-pleasing, there is always some clear, understandable motivation behind it. I don't know if this is what the samurai was "really" like (and in fact, Seibei is not supposed to be a regular samurai at all, or even a typical man for his time), but it certainly gives a well-rounded, full realized portrayal on the individual, family, and cultural levels, and is all the more rewarding for when the action actually does come (by which point I really didn't expect it at all).
Source: Empire DVD
15 Aug, 9:14 PM
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