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FILM HOME PAGE
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FEATURING ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICANS LAST SAMURAI TOM
CRUSE & EDWARD ZWICK'S LOVE OF JAPANESE CULTURE - Director Edward
Zwick has long been fascinated by Japanese culture and Japanese films.
In a sense, he has been imagining The Last Samurai since he was a teenager.
Like Zwick, Tom Cruise discovered Kurosawa and the Japanese oeuvre as
a teenager, and acknowledges always having had "a deep respect and
strong feeling for the Japanese culture and people, the elegance and beauty
of the Samurai, their spirit of Bushido that teaches strength, compassion,
fierce loyalty, their commitment to honoring their word and a willingness
to give their lives for what they know is right. It's essentially about
taking responsibility for what you do and say, whatever the repercussions.
KEN WATANABE - This Japanese stage and film actor is making his English-language debut as Tom Cruise's co-star in this movie. He plays the samurai leader Katsumoto, the spiritual model and ultimate battle partner for Mr. Cruise's Captain Algren, a Civil War hero shamed and disillusioned by the United States Army's brutal slaughter of American Indians. Mr. Watanabe doesn't have nearly as much screen time as Mr. Cruise, but he gives such a quietly commanding performance that it feels as if he does. Mr. Watanabe is more than six feet tall and strikingly handsome, with sensual, hawklike features that suggest a younger, bigger Yul Brynner. To play Katsumoto — based on Takamori Saigo, a heroic figure in Japanese history noted for his unusual size — Mr. Watanabe bulked up, and not only physically. In Japan Mr. Watanabe typically plays what he calls "strong-minded, strong-willed men." For this role he added a dimension of protectiveness by imagining Katsumoto as a kind of ideal older brother. That he and his way of life are doomed only gives him a tragic dimension. The movie would have you believe that Mr. Cruise is the last samurai, but, as Mr. Watanabe's every gesture makes clear, he owns the title. FILM REVIEW
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