Samurai Marathon 1855

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Steve C Traitors: go bite dust. Long live the marathon. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 07/02/24 Full Review Audience Member The movie reminds me of the movie "The Twilight Samurai". Similar themes are explored regarding the westernization of Japan during the end of the Samurai era. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member My wife is descended from a Date clan samurai family and we appreciate a well crafted action, drama or the occasional comedy film in this genre. We had read glowing reviews and seen the 4/5 star rating for this silly rubbish from ‘acclaimed' director Bernard Rose. Samurai films don't always need to be serious period pieces but the recent trend of contemporary filmmakers, both Japanese and foreign, to stretch the bounds of believability beyond any reasonable historical veracity, in the service of gender politics or attempts at hip humor, leave us empty. I would term this sub-genre historical comedy, and it's difficult to do well and very easy to do badly. Samurai Marathon succeeds at failing miserably. It's not funny and it's not well acted. We're all sucked into watching it because of the references to an interesting historical event as well as a soundtrack that uses music from Philip Glass. The opening scenes of a glowering Danny Huston as Commodore Mathew Perry should have clued us in that this was going to be a ‘B' movie, at best. There are several hunky young Japanese actors in the film whose talents are mostly miserably wasted, who managed to shine more brightly in other recent historical comedies. The fighting scenes were atrociously stupid, sloppy and unbelievable. Late in the film Samurai Marathon completely ‘jumped the shark' when it had Japanese comedic actor Naoto Takenaka strip off his outer garments for no reason at all - accept that director Rose must have seen him do this in any number of previous stupid comedy films - and finishes the marathon in nothing but a soggy loincloth. We're supposed to guffaw at such silliness. And in the final homage to out of place female empowerment, we're all expected to celebrate that in 1855, the only offspring of the local daimyo, a ‘princess,' is going to be allowed to travel from Annaka domain to Edo /Tokyo all by herself, without an escort, right? This film is an offense to anyone of us hoping for any interesting period piece without our credulity being tested so baldly. The real disappointment is that the film employs many good Japanese actors and they are wasted in this rubbish. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Samurai Marathon 1855

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