If viewed in an historical vacuum, it's not a bad movie

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2004)

Although most recent movies are generally a mile wide and an inch thick, this movie is not so bad so long as the viewer is ignorant of early 20th century Asian history (which, fortunately for movie makers, the lion's share of moviegoers are ignorant of most everything).
If you haven't figured it out yet, the movie revolves around the samurai and their struggle to keep the "old ways" in the face of modernization/Westernization.
Seems noble, doesn't it?
The movie, although not in an attempt to mislead, fails to tell the rest of the story. The idea of protecting the Emperor and worshipping him as god on Earth makes a resurgence and, in short, leads to the invasion of China and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. If a viewer cares to get a fuller picture of the ideals that Tom Cruise's character is fighting to protect, he must educate himself on such things as the Rape of Nanjing, the brutal ethnic-cleansing undertaken on the Korean peninsula, the Bataan Death March, Unit 731, Korean and Chinese comfort women and the island-hopping campaigns of the Pacific Theater in World War II. In short, the samurai ideal lead to the torture and death of thousands of Americans and millions of Chinese and Koreans, among others.
I would compare this movie to a film version of the early days of the Nazi party, perhaps detailing the struggles against the Trade Unions and the Communists. Probably entertaining if viewed in a vacuum, but when put into historical perspective, very ominous.