Twilight Samurai: Review By derekmay

If Kurasawa were still alive, this is the movie he’d of made. While not your typical genre fare of shiny slashing swords and spewing geysers of blood, it is still a Samurai movie. A Samurai movie with heart.

The story of a lower class widowed Samurai who must support his two young daughters and an aging, senile, mother on an income comparable to a fry-cook is not one that is often told. We imagine our Samurai as bold, fierce with either a wealthy lord to keep them in sharpened swords or a devious intellect that coerces money from wherever they can. This movie couldn’t be more opposite, or realistic.

Our hero, Iguchi Seibei, works for his clan monitoring rice counts and food rations. He does his job from dawn until dusk, when his abrupt departure at that time has earned him the nickname “Twilight.