breath-stealing, enthralling, humorous at times, well-drawn characters

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2004)

KEN WATANABE AS "KATSUMOTO" Ken Watanabe's fierce, brilliant portrayal of "Katsumoto" in the Last Samurai took my breath away! Characterization was this film's strongest point--the many verbal parries and silent communications between these very real characters made me feel awe, sadness, smirking amusement, loss, and heartbreak. All by itself, that would be a terrific acomplishment and my review would be written and done with.
But I really didn't know anything about this "Ken Watanabe" guy, did I? Not that he's actually rather easy-going...and not that in real life he looks more like a huggable chipmunk than a slashing Samurai!
To be sure, this is silly, but I actually got so obsessed by this that I was downloading pictures of Ken as Katsumoto to my desktop just so I could switch back-and-forth between each picture and a video interview I found online. I just could NOT rectify the guy in the video with this vitallically fierce character, especially when at the movies it seems "Katsumoto" might get in your face instead of Nathan's (Tom Cruise).
Yesiree, pretty amazing stuff this Watanabe-san is, hmmm? Oh, but wait, that's nothing yet...there's a reason I'm calling him Watanabe-san...he is 100% Japanese, has always lived in Japan, and this is his first English-speaking role. He had to apologize ahead of time when he walked into a press conference because his English isn't that good yet...and this is AFTER he made the movie!
So now that you KNOW, go back and see the movie a second time. During EVERY one of his quotes of wisdom given in that musically poetic voice, or EVERY razor-sharp taunt at Nathan Algren, you sit there and try to convince yourself that the Ken in these videos is the same guy that delivers those important lines with such perflect inflection--in English!
Of course acting is so much more than speaking...it's the precise raising of an eyebrow, the sharp and skeptic gaze, the royal carriage, the small gesture, the smirk that almost but never quite appears. Ken Watanabe is the master at all of these, and then some. He's simply larger-than-life, and how he does it is a mystery. I am sure he will be considered a master of the art, in both theatre and film, for decades and decades.

THE MOVIE "The Last Samurai" is a breath-stealing, enthralling epic, humorous at times and deft in the sensitive portrayals of its well-drawn characters--often without the aid of dialogue. Set mostly in rural Japan during the Meiji Restoration, it attempts, and mostly succeeds, to pack the stories of several complex, historical figures into one unified drama through fictional characters inspired by real Japanese people.
The story opens with a landscape of etheral beauty, where a Samurai meditates next to a mountiain-top temple. He has a vision of a battle in the fog-shrouded forest, with a roaring white tiger surrounded by his band of warriors. Then we are shifted to post-Revolutionary America, where retired, decorated Army captain Nathan Algren drowns away his guilt in booze, making a profitable but pathetic living as a side-show attraction at Winchester gun sales events.
Nathan is tormented by flashbacks of attacks in which his army killed innocent Indian women and children. A former comrade seeks him out as he has recieved a proposal to work in Japan. They and their former commander are offered an outrageous sum for training new, modern warriors for the routing of some tenacious bands of Samurai who refuse to give up their traditional way of the warrior, especially the feared and crafty Katsumoto. He is loyal to the emperor but believes the man-child is being manipulated by greedy Japanese and foreign businessmen. Nathan allows himself to be talked into the get-rich scheme and off he sails.
Responsible for transforming an army of conscripts, mostly farmers and some former Samurai, into modern-day gun-toting soldiers, Nathan hardly has time to catch a breath before his arrogant superior officer orders the regiment detached to the forest to stop Katsumoto from attacking trains in the countryside. As expected (no spoiler here), the result is a pathetic flaying.

** SPOILER ALERT! ** Knocked off his horse in battle, Nathan is surrounded by fearsome swordsmen trying to get his life over with for him. He valiantly tries to hold off a whole clutch while they are gaining the advantage. Down from his white steed drops the legendary Katsumoto. He yanks off his mask, openly gaping in amazement at this overwhelmed and outnumbered man who refuses to give up when he is beat. The man is sweeping a sword he ripped from one of the Samurai in wide, defensive arcs. In slow-mo, we see hanging from the sword the flag of the white tiger! At the moment of certain death, Katsumoto orders, "Stop!" and the action comes to a grinding halt.

While witnessing the death of one of the army officers, Nathan the prisoner of war is led away on horseback to be held in a mountain village. Openly hostile and hateful at first, Nathan soon learns not to pre-judge his enemy and that he and Katsumoto have more in common than not. Brief passages of witty dialogue alternate with demoralizing defeats and silent emotional moments as Nathan parries with and learns from the wise Katsumoto, struggles to uphold his pride amongst the exclusionist warriors, learns to speak Japanese and to love the simple way of life, and

** SPOILER ALERT! ** discovers that his caretaker, Katsumoto's sister Taka, who was widowed by his own hand, deeply resents her swiftly-growing feelings for him. He even valiantly defends Katsumoto, Katsumoto's brave little nephew, and the rest of the family from a deadly Ninja assassination plot!

Eventually the emperor guarantees safe passage for Katsumoto to return the prisoner to his American comrades, and so they set off for Tokyo. Everything is changing...Samurai are stripped of their titles, police officers cut off boys' top-knots, and the wearing of swords is forbidden. After Nathan takes his leave, Katsumoto stubbornly walks in to attend a council meeting with the emperor. The council demands he give up his sword.

** SPOILER ALERT! ** Katsumoto offers to take his own life, but the emperor won't speak directly to him. Refusing to lay down his sword, he is placed under house arrest at his Tokyo home, led to a special ritual room, and offered a knife for ritual suicide in order to regain his honor, because he has refused to follow the emperor's mandates.

Meanwhile, Algren is preparing for his journey home, refusing to stay and "kill japos" to make more money. He resolutely refuses to be drawn into an argument with his former officer about his supposed "hate" of his own kind.

** SPOILER ALERT! ** But then Nathan seems to have a sudden inuition that something terrible is going to happen, or he mentally yanks himself up, and determines to spring Katsumoto. Goverment spies have been keeping an eye on him, however, and he is cornered by a troupe of Ninja assassins. He puts himself in the state of "no mind" and visualization, armed only with his fists, and manages to steal two swords and efficiently dispenses with the enemy. With the help of the goofy foreign photographer, an expert in all things Japanese who had accompanied the Americans in Tokyo and the emperor's palace upon their initial arrival, and several other men, he hatches and carries out a crazy plot to gain entrance to Katsumoto's Tokyo estate and spring him from containment. Katsumoto's brave young son dies in the battle, but the rescue is a success. They retreat back to the village, but Katsomoto has no heir of his own or of his son's to pass the village on to (land is passed through ranks of Samurai only).

During their dejected retreat, Katsumoto considers taking his own life to avoid dishonor in defeat in his quest to preserve the old way of life, but Nathan talks him out of it. For once, he teaches Katsumoto his own philosophy about destiny and death. "We will make the emperor hear you," he says.
Back at the village, as vast army regiments gather below in preparation for the rout of the last Samurai, Katsumoto and Nathan work out their strategy. Though the future of the Samurai is, in this movie as in real life, easy to portend, they vow to make it as difficult as they possibly can and not give up until the end.
The ONLY "weakness" in the movie, and it is MINOR (hey, we already knew the fate of the Samurai before we ever stepped foot in the theater) is the screenwriter's soft attempt to give the outcome some meaning above and beyond the tragic understanding which we have already accepted, and which he thinks we are not mature enough to handle and still find the many truths. I will not post any "spoiler" details on this.
But along with the admirable values of honor, duty, loyalty, compassion and service to family, there is a deeper tenet not associated with the Samurai "Bushido". We capture it fully only when faced with grim reality. A man said to me, when I was leaving the movie for the first time, "It sure renews your belief in faith, doesn't it?" Yes, it does, and the tragedy of the Samurai does not have to be candy-coated for me to come away with a great sense of faith. In truth, people walk out of this film with an uplifting of spirits in the face of death, which was exactly Ken Watanabe's hope for lucky moviegoers around the world.