The Twilight Samurai

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The Twilight Samurai
The Twilight Samurai poster
Directed by	Yôji Yamada
Written by	Yôji Yamada Shuhei Fujisawa Yoshitaka Asama
Starring	Hiroyuki Sanada Rie Miyazawa
Distributed by	Shochiku Co., Ltd. Empire Pictures
Release date(s)	November 2, 2002
Running time	129 min.
Language	Japanese
IMDb profile

The Twilight Samurai (たそがれ清兵衛, Tasogare Seibei) is an Academy Award nominated 2002 Japanese film directed by Yoji Yamada. Set in mid-19th century Japan, a few years before the Meiji Restoration, it follows the life of Seibei Iguchi, a low-ranking samurai employed as a bureaucrat. Poor but not destitute, he still leads a happy life with his daughters and senile mother. Sadly, the turbulent times conspire against him.

The film is different from many other samurai-themed films in that it concentrates on showing the main character's everyday struggles instead of focusing on battles. The film carries very few fight scenes.

The Twilight Samurai was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Academy Awards, losing to the Canadian film Les Invasions barbares. Twilight Samurai also won an unprecedented 12 Japanese Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At the start of the film, the main character, Iguchi Seibei, becomes a widower as his wife dies from tuberculosis, a common illness at the time. His samurai colleagues give him the condescending nickname "Tasogare Seibei," or "Twilight Seibei," because when it gets dark in the evening, he disappears to look after his senile elderly mother and two young daughters, Kayano and Ito, instead of going out with the others.

Things change when Seibei's childhood friend and the sister of one of his samurai friends, Tomoe, returns to town. Recently divorced from an abusive husband, she quickly bonds with Seibei's children. When her former husband returns in search of her, Seibei defends her honor in a duel, beating the husband, Koda, with only a bokuto (wooden practice sword) even when Koda battled witha a steel sword. However, when Tomoe's brother, Iinima Michinojo, asks Seibei to marry her, Seibei refuses, citing his low standing and how he doesn't want her to live in poverty.

The final turning point in the film happens when Seibei's clan, having heard of his prowess with a sword, wants him to kill a former samurai retainer, Yogo Zen'emon, who refused to commit seppuku after acting against the interests of the clan. Seibei is also promised a rise in standing for this service. He is reluctant at first, but has no choice but to agree to do the task. Seibei's kodachi (short sword) fighting style is matched up against Zen'emon's ittōryū (single long sword) swordsmanship in an intense duel indoors. In the end, Seibei kills Zen'emon and finally gets to marry Tomoe.

In a brief epilogue, his younger daughter explains that their happiness was not to last: he died three years later in the Boshin War, Japan's last civil war.