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The Twilight Samurai

2002 · 129 min

A quiet, tender portrait of duty and love, with moments of swordplay that feel earned rather than flashy.

Directed by
Yoji Yamada
Genres
Drama, Romance
Starring
Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa, Nenji Kobayashi
Overview
Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
Directed by
Yoji Yamada
Genres
Drama, Romance
Starring
Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa, Nenji Kobayashi
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • earneststrength 3 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • warmstrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • family
  • love
  • identity
  • class
  • grief
Places
  • small town
  • home
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
None
Content intensity
  • Gore mild
  • Language none
  • Violence mild
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror0
Humour2
Realism8
Romance6
Tension4
Darkness4
Complexity5
Emotional weight8

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama, romance
Directed by
Yoji Yamada
Written by
Yoji Yamada, Yoshitaka Asama
Starring
Hiroyuki Sanada, Rie Miyazawa, Nenji Kobayashi, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Min Tanaka, Ren Osugi, Hiroshi Kanbe, Miki Ito
Music
Isao Tomita
Cinematography
Mutsuo Naganuma
Runtime
129 min
Country
Japan
Languages
Japanese

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