Message from ccarter

[Anonymous]

I appreciate your review. I see uses for the film in showing everything you mentioned. Also, it demonstrates the sclerotic nature of the samurai class by the mid-1800s. Clearly they are salarymen much like today's businessmen, very few actually being trained in the use of the sword. The wealth gap between some samurai and the farming poor is noexistent. The main character's struggle between duty to clan and justice is illuminating.

This film is an effective answer to the romanticized view of samurais portrayed by The Last Samurai. They were hardly heroes.