Numb Arse

Posted on Fri 30 January 2004 by alex in general

I went to see The Last Samurai last night. It was very good and I enjoyed it immensely - certainly one for a possible future DVD purchase. It is a long film, luckily the training my arse has had from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy helped. As a side note the AMC seems to have a policy of a few trailers followed by the film which is noticeably different from UCI's ad-fest. Considering the parking is free and its just down the road I may have to watch more films there.

The premise of the story is nothing new, its your standard person goes native in another culture type thing. However the film work is breathtaking - if I go to Japan I'd certainly be looking to go into the countryside instead of the crowded cities. I enjoyed the sword work although I'm sure more devote followers of the form may be more critical. Although the film is long (over 2 hours) it didn't feel

labored at any point (which bits of LoTR did IMHO). There where a few cheesy lines in the dialogue but they where handled well. Even the python-esque resonances in the ending didn't detract from my enjoyment. My only possible gripe is the last scene could of been cut without adversely affecting the film. See this film :-)