Movie Review: The Last Samurai

If you are not accustomed to movies that are bloody and gory, then you had better not watch The Last Samurai! I’m warning you first that this movie is not for the faint of heart but if you want to go ahead and watch it, don’t be hunting for me. :D

Tom Cruise is Captain Nathan Algren, a fearless, stubborn and determined soldier from America. He’s been asked to go to Japan and train the Emperor’s newly-picked soldiers to fight against the rebellious samurai. Although Algren thinks that the soldiers aren’t ready for battle yet, they are sent to fight with the attacking samurai.

It was a losing battle for the Emperor’s army but the leader of the samurai gang, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), decides to keep Algren alive. His reason? Probably he wished to learn more about the enemy. He was probably fascinated by Algren’s will and determination to keep on fighting even though he’s already badly wounded during battle.

So Algren is brought back to the samurai’s village and put in the care of Katsumoto’s sister, Taka (Koyuki). During battle, Algren killed Taka’s husband. It must be awfully hard for her to nurse the man who took her husband’s life!

When Algren’s somewhat recovered and has stopped asking for sake, he walked around the cozy little village and took in what he saw. Men practicing fighting, children playing and women working. Somehow, Algren felt kind of peaceful to be there at that village despite being held hostage there!

But as time went by, he and Katsumoto began learning from each other and Algren gets along with the people. There’s even attraction between him and Taka.

Algren’s supposed to be against the samurai but now he’s become their friend. What’ll happen next?

The Last Samurai’s a really interesting movie and it’s quite sad too. I was flabbergasted with the scenes where they sliced people’s heads off! But overall, it’s a great movie and like I said, the slicing of heads was truly realistic! Ugh!