The Last Samurai "bushido"

[pkt]

All,

Saw the trailer in the cinema for Tom Cruise's "The Last Samurai" - the name in Kanji [Chinese characters] say "Bushido".

I think this is going to be as good, if not better, than "Kill Bill" swordplaywise - with diff't sized canvas and scope.

Here's the link
http://lastsamurai.warnerbros.com/home.php

There are 2 trailers, 3 short 'movies', 14 fotos as well as 3 "Learn More" info pieces.

Enjoy.

A good book to read to be educated on this is S.R. Turnbull's "The Samurai [what else?] - A Military History".

No, I'm not Japanese, I'm Chinese.

PK

[lochinvar]

I hesitate to say this, but it looks like "Dances With Shoguns"...

However, it still looks good. I look forward to its release.
I'm interested to see how they show Japan post-Perry and pre-Meiji...

[dunastor]

post-Perry?!?

[pkt]

Loch,

If you like the "post Perry, pre-Meiji" samurai movies, all you have to do is to rent some Kurosawa/Toshiro Mifune samurai movies. Even REBELLION (Joiuchi), dir. by Masaki Kobayashi--also produced by Toshiro Mifune (1967) is very watchable and gives an idea about a samurai's life.

http://www.sprout.org/toshiro/films/byyear2.htm

PK

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by lochinvar
I hesitate to say this, but it looks like "Dances With Shoguns"...

LOL! Why hesitate? Very droll! And I shall be stealing it forthwith!

[C.J.]

Hollywood likes to put the word LAST in front of everything. The movie title in Japanese simply means The Way of Samurai. But somehow it becomes the LAST Samurai in English.

The Last Emperor, The last of Mohicans, The Last Samurai, please, how many lasts are there?

[pkt]

Originally posted by C.J.
Hollywood likes to put the word LAST in front of everything. The movie title in Japanese simply means The Way of Samurai. ...

That's what I meant in my original post by
"the name in Kanji [Chinese characters] say "Bushido"".

I guess I assumed most of us know "Kanji" and "bushido" being warriors in our own way. I s'pose I assumed too much.

PK

[whtouche]

Originally posted by C.J.

please, how many lasts are there?

With extinction rates being what they are I'd say lots, and many more to come

[pkt]

Thread Drift:

The massive moose herd in northern Cda losing half of its population.

The killer whales becoming PBC dumps.

Lions infected with AIDS.

Poachers who go for the last of whatever.

Chinese people - I can say that, you who are not Chinese cannot - who eats everything into extinction, e.g. sharks.

All those big fishes in the sea, e.g. tuna.

All the other fishes in the sea being overfished by the Japanese, the Portuguese, the Spaniards.

Whales being fished for "scientific studies" by the Japnese and Icelanders.

Slash-and-burn subsistent farmers in the Amazon basin...


My apologies to all, I was at the thread "Things that shouldn't be" before I embark on this....

PK

[lochinvar]

Originally posted by dunastor
post-Perry?!?

Commodore Matthew Perry visited Japan in 1853 on a mission to open Japanese ports to American whalers and trade.

This visit ended more than two centuries of self-imposed Japanese isolation, bringing them once again into contact and interaction with the international community.

A rapid "Western-ization" and industrialization of the country followed, launching it on the road to becoming one of the leading industrial powers of the world.

Since the movie is set in 1876, that would make it "post-Perry".

However, I was wrong in thinking it was "pre-Meiji". The Meiji Restoration took place in 1868, so the movie is also "post-Meiji".

Should still be a good flick, though...

[arcon]

some movies should be titled "The Last Sequel"

[dunastor]

Originally posted by lochinvar
This visit ended more than two centuries of self-imposed Japanese isolation, bringing them once again into contact and interaction with the international community.

This is not exactly true in my opinion.
Until the mid 1600's there were a few (European) countries trading with Japan, when some Christians caused enough trouble (ie converting Japanese to Christianity) for the shogun to banish all contact with Westerners.
However, one small nation stayed in contact during those 2 centuries before the aforementioned Perry showed up: The Netherlands . They had a little enclave in the bay of Nagasaki called Deshima, which technically wasn't Japan, but from there contact with the Western world was maintained, so there wasn't a complete isolation.

After contact with the Western world was "renewed" or rather (mostly) the portugese traded fire-arms with local daimyo, who then had a superior power against other daimyo with only an army of samurai on horseback.
If my memory serves me correctly one of those daimyo who quickly rose to power in those days was Oda Nobunaga...

[neevel]

You've got your eras backwards-- Nobunaga was one of the warlords who played a central role in the unification of Japan in the late 16th century that ultimately led up to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, and then Japan's gradual closing to most of the outside world.

The contact that the Dutch at Deshima had with Japan was extremely limited-- only a select group of beauraucrats from the bakufu (the Tokugawa state apparatus) were permitted contact with them, only one Dutch ship a year was permitted to visit Deshima, and the Dutch on the islet were not allowed to set foot on Japanese soil except for the periodic embassies they (like all daimyo) were required to make to the Shogun in Edo. The primary reason the Japanese kept the Dutch on was so they could have at least one source of intelligence about what the European powers were up to. A much greater (but still tightly controlled) contact with China and other Asian nations was also maintained at Nagasaki.

The political and military machinations which led to the Meiji restoration were rather complex, but ultimately boiled down to a number of key figures-- particularly the daimyo of some of the larger southern domains like Choshu, Satsuma, and Tosa-- realizing that 1) Japan was going to suffer the same fate as China if it didn't modernize and 2) the bakufu probably couldn't do the job fast enough. The Imperial Court was the best alternative state apparatus at hand, and had the benefit of being the focus of a nationalistic fervor that was brought to renewed prominence by the forced opening to the world. The restoration itself was essentially a bloodless coup akin the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which the last Shogun was convinced to abdicate and allow political power to pass (in name at least) to the Emperor. There were a series of rebellions aganist the new order, which were defeated by the armies of the pro-Imperial domains.

Given the date mentioned (1876), I'd imagine the plot centers around the Satsuma rebellion, when samurai angry over the loss of their tradtional privileges were put down by the new, western-style Imperial army.

-Dave

[dunastor]

Originally posted by neevel
You've got your eras backwards

Sorry about that...

The primary reason the Japanese kept the Dutch on was so they could have at least one source of intelligence about what the European powers were up to. A much greater (but still tightly controlled) contact with China and other Asian nations was also maintained at Nagasaki.

That's indeed the way I understood it too (at least there was some contact between Japan and the west in those days)

The political and military machinations which led to the Meiji restoration were rather complex

Very interesting matter, I should read more about it...

[neevel]

Marius Jansson's The Making of Modern Japan about as comprehensive a treatment of Japan from the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate through to the 20th century as you'll find. It's so dense, however, that it can be an extremely slow read.

-Dave

[dunastor]

Thanks for the tip