Samurai Marathon 1855

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Kevin P @RT55971421 Nov 21 A well-directed samurai ensemble piece that covers the origin of the annual Annaka samurai marathon as the age of the samurai reaches its twilight years as globalist powers continue to intrude. Bernard Rose's directing is fantastic. We get some great cinematography of the colorful landscapes and apparel of pre-industrial Japan. There's an intriguing storyline about isolationist Japan anticipating the increasing reach of the western world, as the city of Annaka hosts a marathon to tests its samurai in fear of colonization in spite of the Shogun's interests in the new prospects. The film starts with an entertaining scene where Matthew Perry and the American Navy try to trade items like revolvers, whisky, photographs, and telegrams with the Japanese emperor. The mistranslations had me laughing. The titular marathon of the samurai is very entertaining. I love the epic folksy score by Phillip Glass. The marathon running dance scene between the boy and the old man was cute. Admittedly, the movie's pacing is quite slow in the first half. There's a lot of characters to follow. Some are funny and memorable, while others get lost in the story. But they're all carried by some strong performances. The action scenes are sparse, but solid. Though I'll admit, the climax does feel a little rushed. While the script's pacing and characters could've been tighter, it's still worth a watch for the strong direction, cinematography, action, and the great premise. See more Chad S @RT05690510 06/23/2025 I'm only 5 minutes into the movie so far, and I've seen one huge, glaring mistake. They have a high ranking American Navy officer presenting a Colt Peacemaker revolver (actually a cased pair of them), to a high-ranking assistant of the Shogun. It stated at the very beginning of the movie that it was set in 1855. That revolver wasn't even invented by that point. See more Steve C @RT19610513 07/02/2024 Traitors: go bite dust. Long live the marathon. See more PanProduction T @ChunPan9 04/29/2022 The movie reminds me of the movie "The Twilight Samurai". Similar themes are explored regarding the westernization of Japan during the end of the Samurai era. See more 05/29/2021 My wife is descended from a Date clan samurai family and we appreciate a well crafted action, drama or the occasional comedy film in this genre. We had read glowing reviews and seen the 4/5 star rating for this silly rubbish from ‘acclaimed' director Bernard Rose. Samurai films don't always need to be serious period pieces but the recent trend of contemporary filmmakers, both Japanese and foreign, to stretch the bounds of believability beyond any reasonable historical veracity, in the service of gender politics or attempts at hip humor, leave us empty. I would term this sub-genre historical comedy, and it's difficult to do well and very easy to do badly. Samurai Marathon succeeds at failing miserably. It's not funny and it's not well acted. We're all sucked into watching it because of the references to an interesting historical event as well as a soundtrack that uses music from Philip Glass. The opening scenes of a glowering Danny Huston as Commodore Mathew Perry should have clued us in that this was going to be a ‘B' movie, at best. There are several hunky young Japanese actors in the film whose talents are mostly miserably wasted, who managed to shine more brightly in other recent historical comedies. The fighting scenes were atrociously stupid, sloppy and unbelievable. Late in the film Samurai Marathon completely ‘jumped the shark' when it had Japanese comedic actor Naoto Takenaka strip off his outer garments for no reason at all - accept that director Rose must have seen him do this in any number of previous stupid comedy films - and finishes the marathon in nothing but a soggy loincloth. We're supposed to guffaw at such silliness. And in the final homage to out of place female empowerment, we're all expected to celebrate that in 1855, the only offspring of the local daimyo, a ‘princess,' is going to be allowed to travel from Annaka domain to Edo /Tokyo all by herself, without an escort, right? This film is an offense to anyone of us hoping for any interesting period piece without our credulity being tested so baldly. The real disappointment is that the film employs many good Japanese actors and they are wasted in this rubbish. See more Read all reviews

Samurai Marathon 1855

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