"The Last Samurai: The True History Behind The Film" Topic

"The Last Samurai is a pretty solid, although underrated film. The action is well done, and the fusion of old and new, as well as the many ideologies throughout the movie are delivered in an interesting and enjoyable fashion.

No Hollywood historical epic is accurate, although almost all are based on a well-known story or a particularly important period. The Last Samurai picks a fascinating time and place; the Meiji Restoration period of Japan.

The young Emperor Meiji (center) meeting with dozens of European representatives.This was a difficult period. It is often simplified by explaining it was the modernization of Japan, specifically the evolution of its military and the decline of its warrior class of samurai.

The Meiji Restoration usually refers to when the Meiji Emperor was restored to power. However, enormous strides in modernization including Western styles of dress and weapons had been adopted during the civil war which brought about the Restoration. These modernizations were streamlined when the government became more stabilized…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I liked the movie. But the film's taking the side of the Medievalist Samurai is seriously misguided.

Without the modernization, Japan would have likely become just another European colony.

The Last Samurai: from fiction to reality link

Movie was typical "Western culture sucks, exotic foreign culture noble". Truth is that cultures that cannot adapt to technological innovation are doomed to collapse. The whole nobility aspect is merely nostalgia on our part.

An excellent counter to this film's inaccuracies are the NHK series, "Yae's Sakura," and "Ryoma," which may be viewed on Dramafever.com.

Yae seems pretty accurate. Ryoma slightly less so because they've cleaned up a controversial figure a little too much.

I greatly enjoyed the film all in all.
It reflected what I have seen throughout history, that once a part of a culture becomes 'traditional', it takes on an almost sacred place in that culture, be it civilian or military.
And in some cases takes even military force to 'drag' the world into the reality of change.

The 2018 NHK Taiga drama is going to be about the life of Saigo Takamori, based on Mariko Hayashi's novel "Segodon."

Oddly enough, a friend commented that his psych class professor used the movie as an excellent example of stockholm syndrome…

You gotta side with the underdog to make it an interesting movie.

I wouldn't go into it expecting anything resembling a documentary.

I did enjoy the film, but thought it was pretty much 'Dances with Wolves' with Samurai… and then 'Avatar' came along and that was pretty much 'Dances with Wolves' with blue people.