the last samurai is probably one of the better movies i’ve seen this year. amidst the sequel detritus floating around hollywood, this movie was original, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

i also saw a few familiar faces from other movies that i liked, such as tom goldwyn, the baddie from ghost, and hiroyuki sanada, who played ryuji in ringu (the original japanese version of the ring).

i really enjoyed the fight scenes (which i’m only beginning to appreciate in movies as of late). the command of the sword and the artistic movement of bodies made the battles, and especially the “training” scenes, all the more captivating.

tom cruise managed to break out of his string of bad, bad movies (or what i think are bad, bad movies) such as mission impossible 2, minority report, and vanilla sky, and finds his niche in something that actually inspires an intellectual critique of history. and it’s always nice to see asians in a role with more scope in dialogue than just “you want some fried rice?” or “i am go get my triad gangster friends to killing you now!”

however, there were a few qualms that i had with the film. the feminist in me screams “bloody cliché” with regards to the whole white-man-gets-oriental-hottie relationship. although koyuki is quite beautiful and does fill an apparent role in the story, i don’t quite see why every film with a clash of different cultures must end with the foreign female falling for the stereotypical white male. as with most movies about war, there seems to be a lack of female importance or agency in the film, other than the role of housekeeper or caregiver. but, like i said, in movies about war (especially during this era), there always seems to be a glaring omission of the female’s role.

anyway, enough of my pseudo-intellectual rambling. it was a great movie.