Quite good but purloined, methinks

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2004)

Does anybody else think this may be a rewrite of the old SHOGUN? The book, SHOGUN, is superb, but I didn't care much for the film. Obviously, the plot is somewhat different, but the basic story line is the same. We have a Westerner teaching the Japanese, who before used only the bow and the sword, to use guns in war. Westerner learns to love the ancient Japanese culture, turning his back on his awful western ways. Sound familiar? This is much better written than SHOGUN (the film) and in my opinion, has superior acting (but then even I can act better than Richard Chamberlain). Cruise is excellent, but Ken Watanabe as the warlord Katsumoto steals the show from Tom. A beautiful Japanese actress Koyuki also does an excellent acting job. A lot of the dialog is in Japanese with English subtitles, but somehow that's not too much of a distraction; it adds to the realism. There are a couple of large battle scenes and, yes, it gets very bloody. But when you hack someone's arm off, they're going to bleed! Overall, very well done but some borrowed or recycled material.