Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei, 2002) is now being shown in Los Angeles (and in other major U.S. cities, I guess) after being nominated for an Academy Award this past February. I finally saw it and for anyone interested in Japanese history, samurai culture, or martial arts I cannot recommend it highly enough. People who enjoyed Tom Cruise's Last Samurai (I am not one of them) especially owe it to themselves to see how the last days of the samurai looks when envisioned by Japanese eyes. I am not a film critic, but I could not help but be struck by the many contrasts between the two films, almost always to the advantage of Twilight. In short, Twilight Samurai is everything that the Last Samurai was not.
First, it is actually filmed in Japan. We get to see real Japanese mountains, scenery, homes, clothes, and manners. Second, it is not romanticized. Twilight is not just a metaphor. Everything is dark. Without electric lights, the insides of buildings are dark even during daytime. Daily life also is dark. We see lower-level samurai (and the vast majority were lower level) as bound to an impossibly strict hierarchy, with endless rules, restrictions on behavior, and servitude to even the most insufferable superiors. Chores began at dawn and continued to dusk. Work in the castle consisted of the drudgery of bookkeeping and bowing to bosses. Everyone was ill feed and ill clothed. If the samurai had it rough, then the peasants had pure hell. Peasants do not appear in the film, but their fate is indicated by their starved corpses that float down the river from time to time. Third, the Buddhism consists of expensive funerals and of devout prayers to Amitabha Buddha (both still ubiquitous features of Japanese life) --- not the pseudo-Zen, fake outdoor meditation displayed in Last Samurai. Fourth, military training consists of rather inept gunnery practice, not the weird, group sword calisthenics invented for Last Samurai. Fifth, speaking of swordplay, in Twilight it is quite good. It is still cinema-style chambara, but it clearly attempts to depict actual kenjutsu methods common in the northeastern region of Japan where the film is set. Unlike the mishmash in the Last Samurai, I could see recognizable (i.e., identifiable by name) stances, closing techniques, and strikes. Sixth and most important, Twilight depicts the psychological aspects (the fear, horror, and chaos) of swordplay realistically. It is not pretty. The aftermath is even less pretty.
However much one might admire some aspects of traditional Japanese culture, movies like Twilight Samurai make it abundantly clear how difficult it would be for any modern person (Japanese or otherwise) to endure that lifestyle. What a contrast to the fake "bushido" (let's become latter-day samurai) ethos espoused in Last Samurai! If Twilight Samurai plays in your area, then definitely go see it (or wait for a region 1 DVD to be released).