23rd February 2005, 7:24 PM
Quote:Samurai warriors, you mean. Not all of them fought. A lot of them didn't, if I'm remembering correctly...
YES I mean Samurai warriors. I thought that was self-explanatory by now.
Quote:And drawing lines is hard... but it's definitely true that after the point America forced Japan open to trade the nation changed greatly. But also that it hadn't really gotten to be like therest of the world either, of course... transitionary period really of course.
In the end, of course, the Samurai lost their power, gauranteed rights, etc... so of course they revolted a bunch of times but Meiji won. As for what happened after that, that I know a lot better.
Yes, but the skill did not lessen. Not really until swords were outlawed and they could really only practice in private.
Quote:Hmm... yeah, it is Hollywoodized in a way like Troy was, and that is a big part of what got me to dislike that movie... lack of following the facts, merging events, etc, with the goal of making it into a form more accepted for films by audiences, etc... but I guess I was able to ignore it more in Last Samurai. (of course, I didn't hate every minuite of Troy or something, but my overall impressions were definitely negative.) And sure, Last Samurai tries too hard to present the culture as "noble/misunderstood', as you say. Within that they simplify the culture greatly and present it in an inaccurate light... and, of course, have an American as the hero. I didn't really think about it then, but that's definitely a part of Hollywood films... but they made it make enough sense that I wasn't thinking 'that's really stupid'.
A Samurai movie? Sure, I doubt it's much like a real Samurai movie. Haven't seen one, so I can't compare, but Last Samurai feels like an American film for sure. I'm just saying that I didn't think it was an awful movie or something. Not the best movie ever, but not awful.
Well you're entitled to your own opinion.