Sean Parker
Over the last couple of weeks, FrightFest movies have consumed my life. I’ve seen vampires, banshees, serial killers, and surrealness portrayed in ways that surprised and antagonized, and hopefully, you’ve been along for the ride as well. However, with all of the horror and big ideas being displayed on screen, I’m still a sucker for movies about the movies. I genuinely had no idea what to expect as I started A Samurai in Time. For a while, I thought the film would primarily be a kind of fish-out-of-water movie akin to Kate & Leopold or Just Visiting, where the punchline was the adaptability of the ancient protagonist to modern times. While elements of that exist in the film, I found myself moved to the verge of tears and ready to cheer as the credits came up.
A Samurai in Time has been making its rounds for about a year now but only made its International Premiere at Fantasia just over a month ago. That is how I, and many others, caught wind of it. The film was stirring audiences and getting rave reviews. Having missed it during that festival, I wasn’t about to let the opportunity to see A Samurai in Time slip by me twice. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait very long.
When Samurai Kosaka Shinzaemon (Makiya Yamaguchi) is struck by lightning during a swordfight, he awakens on the backlot of a modern-day Kyoto film studio. It also happens to be the last studio making samurai “jidaigeki” (period dramas), which he finds himself a part of and more than slightly confused in the process. Following a slight mishap resulting in a head injury, young assistant director Yuko (Sakura Yuno) finds herself looking after Shinzaemon, fearing his injury has given him amnesia. Not understanding anything about his new timeline, Shinzaemon finds himself drawn to the location of his final swordfight against enemy Ronin Kyoichiro Kazami (Norimasa Fuke). Currently a location now frequently used by the production studio, the caretakers decide to take him in.
Much of A Samurai in Time, to this point, is observational humor of perspective and cultural differences in the one-hundred and forty-plus year gap between the last samurai age and the modern era. Shinzaemon discovers the fate of the samurai and the end of the Edo period in Japan and fears his place in the new world to a small degree. Shinzaemon hides the truth about where he’s from, perhaps so people won’t think he’s crazy, but also because he believes his past life may be a side effect of his amnesia diagnosis. When he discovers Yuko’s TV show, the last of the once popular “jidaigeki” genre, it seems like a good opportunity for Shinzaemon to adjust his samurai abilities to work in the saccharin television version of his old world and allow the outside world to seep in gradually, a far different approach from the norm in these types of movies.
The dynamic in the film shifts when an old Jidaigeki actor decides to make one final picture with the studio and wants Shinzaemon to star alongside him in it. When the filmmaker sets up a meeting with Shinzaemon, he reveals himself as a much older version of Ronin Kazami. The news causes Shinzaemon to question his beliefs as the once ill-fated enemies of another time are no longer at war with one another, but his code of honor suggests their fight to the death should resume.
Shinzaemon sees the world with wonderment, engaging in opportunities he never dreamed he’d be part of, and rises with the help of his samurai qualities by focusing and practicing on his craft to become the best at it and using his humility to attract more support. Even as a character in his thirties to forties, the idea of giving up never occurs. Much of the film’s first half sees Shinzaemon a bit like an adolescent in his new time until Kazami, like a teacher, begins opening his mind to new ways of thinking. Through their interactions, as two people who grew up in the same time and place, a connected kinship binds them together. Yet, Shinzaemon has difficulty allowing a friendship to develop with Kazami. Adversely, having experienced thirty years in the modern era, Kazami understands Shinzaemon’s reluctance but continuously tries to make it clear that he is not Shinzaemon’s enemy.
I don’t really know much about Japanese politics or the history of the fighting that took place in the feudal eras of Japan. But I know how much I love Kurosawa films. Perspectives are fully on display here, with a chunk of the responsibility landing on the political influences of the Edo era. A Samurai in Time also leads itself into a very familiar Sanjuro-styled finale but strays far enough away so that it feels original and as nerve-shredding as ever.
The thing I am well-versed in is American politics and the very divisive natures of voters over the past decade. Where A Samurai in Time is likely not speaking directly to an American audience, its message of compassion among mortal enemies is profoundly heartfelt. Here, the future informs the past as much as the past enhances the present. Shinzaemon’s respect and gracefulness are admired in the new space, but his stubbornness may end up being the thing that gets him killed. Kazami tries to relax the samurai’s old worldviews in small ways, showing him something like entertaining an alcoholic beverage isn’t going to harm him in moderation. Still, the old values come into play, but with a kind of non-forceful, mutual respect. Something sorely lacking in today’s political landscape.
Writer-director and endless multi-hyphenate Jun’ichi Yasuda has crafted one spectacular marvel of a movie, filled with everything that made you fall in love with the film. There are so many fantastically written parallels and contrasts, with themes of coming of age, even during middle age, and just a supreme love for history and cinema. It’s a slice of Cinema Paradiso in a Kurasawa samurai robe. Endlessly entertaining, heartfelt, and humorous. A Samurai in Time will undoubtedly end up on my year-end favorites list, and once you see it, I’m sure it will find its way into yours as well.
A Samurai in Time screened at FrightFest on August 24. It continues to delight critics and film festival audiences worldwide.
A Samurai In Time 侍タイムスリッパー Trailer
Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival
