Life is what happens when you are making other plans~ John Lennon
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind~Gandhi
The time is always right to do what is right~ Martin Luther King Jr.


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai
Plot
-Captain Nathan Algren is a cynical American Civil War veteran who works for anyone. He is hired by Americans who want to make contracts with the Emperor of Japan to train peasants for the first imperial army in Japan to use modern warfare tactics and firearms








-Omura, an imperial army figure, has a top priority of rebelling against traditional Samurai-heir warriors who remain devoted to the dynasty of Japan, and reject the use of Western technology, even firearms.


-Yet, when even his superior force set out, their panic allows the samurai to kill them. Now badly wounded, Algren's bravery impresses the Samurai's leader Katsumoto to spare his life. He is nursed back to health and begins to learn the Japanese way of fighting, which he is now beginning to respect. He participates as Katsumoto's advisor in an attempt to preserve the honored code of Bushido.








-But Omura gets old laws that were dead reactivated. So now Algren has a choice: choose to honor his loyalty to one of the sides on the battlefield
Cast
-Ken Watanabe: Katsumo
-Tom Cruise: Nathan Algren
-William Atherton: Winchester Rep
-Chad Lindberg: Winchester Rep Assistant
-Billy Connolly: Zebulon Gant
-Tony Goldwyn: Col. Bagley
-Masato Harada: Omura
-John Koyama: Omura's Bodyguard
-Shin Koyamada: Nobutada
-Hiroyuki Sanada: Ujio


Did You Know?
-Tom Cruise took no up front salary for this movie
-During a scene where he and actor Hiroyuki Sanada were sword fighting, when a sword blade came within inches of his neck



-The Japanese character Taka(Koyuki)'s son paints is the character for "Samurai"
-The Japanese characters on the front of the movie do not read "The Last Samurai" in Japanese, but rather "Bushido", the code of conduct in which Samurai live by
-This is the first film in which Ken Watanabe spoke English
















-Tom Cruise spent almost two years training for this movie, training in the Japanese language and swordplay instruction
-Japan's actual first white Samurai was an Englishman named William Adams. He was a sailor born in Kent, England in 1564.
-The swordsmith in the village is a real life swordsmith. His name is Yoshihara Kuniiye.

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