trevor826
04-28-2005, 07:50 PM
Disc 1.
A surprisingly good film, surprising because it's from the director (Yojiro Takita) of The Yin Yang Masters which looks and plays like a really cheap made for TV drama.
When the Last Sword is Drawn is a jigsaw puzzle of a film with a sense of Twilight Samurai to it, I don't mean a jigsaw puzzle like 21 Grams but you get pieces of the story as seen from 2 different perspectives and they need to be pieced together to create the whole.
Very much an old school Samurai film but one where familial love comes above honour to the clan, set during the same Meiji period as The Last Samurai and sharing the same themes with the destruction of the Samurai/shogun and the modernization/westernization of Japan. One of the battle sequences bears a slight resemblance to it as well, Samurai armed with swords charging at Imperial troops armed with western guns and even a Gatling? gun.
The film did bring a tear to my eye, it has its moments of sadness, overall good acting, well constructed storyline and definitely worth seeing.
Disc 2
Extras include several mini making of docs.
Good interviews, each person has something interesting to say.
The rather banal presence of Film Premiere and press conference drag things down a touch but overall a good quality DVD.
Cheers Trev.
A surprisingly good film, surprising because it's from the director (Yojiro Takita) of The Yin Yang Masters which looks and plays like a really cheap made for TV drama.
When the Last Sword is Drawn is a jigsaw puzzle of a film with a sense of Twilight Samurai to it, I don't mean a jigsaw puzzle like 21 Grams but you get pieces of the story as seen from 2 different perspectives and they need to be pieced together to create the whole.
Very much an old school Samurai film but one where familial love comes above honour to the clan, set during the same Meiji period as The Last Samurai and sharing the same themes with the destruction of the Samurai/shogun and the modernization/westernization of Japan. One of the battle sequences bears a slight resemblance to it as well, Samurai armed with swords charging at Imperial troops armed with western guns and even a Gatling? gun.
The film did bring a tear to my eye, it has its moments of sadness, overall good acting, well constructed storyline and definitely worth seeing.
Disc 2
Extras include several mini making of docs.
Good interviews, each person has something interesting to say.
The rather banal presence of Film Premiere and press conference drag things down a touch but overall a good quality DVD.
Cheers Trev.