• 侍タイムスリッパ― (A Samurai in Time)

3/29/25 (Sat)

A samurai from the Aizu clan, which supports the shogun, is facing off against a member of the rebelling Choshu clan in what we now know was the dying days of the shogunate in the mid-19th century. Just as they pull out their swords, the samurai is struck by lightning. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a jidaigeki film studio in modern Japan.

As soon as I heard this much, I tuned out. I’m not a big fan of time travel comedies, which tend to rely on slapstick and fish-out-of-water setups; they rarely reach the dizzying heights of Back to the Future. Moreover, this was a small film directed by a rice farmer in Kyoto, who also acted as scenario writer, cinematographer, lighting co-designer, and editor. But as with One Cut of the Dead, it started as a small independent piece in a single theater, quietly built an audience on word of mouth, and has become a sleeper hit, earning an impressive ¥10,000m thus far in domestic sales on a tiny ¥26m (not a typo) budget. More amazingly, it won the Japan Academy Award for Best Film, the first ever for an independent work. So curiosity got the better of me. The producers must not have expected much from this since it’s already streaming on Amazon even as it continues in theaters despite opening last October.

The film starts with the usual shenanigans. The samurai, Kosaka Shinzaemon, having plunged unknowingly into the 21st century, mistakes the filming of a chambara swordfight for an actual battle, and the movie crew mistake him for an actor. He eventually becomes a kirareyaku, a specialist in getting slashed to death in jidaigeki (samurai dramas). He finds comfort at the temple, still extant, where he had his fateful battle. He also takes an interest in the female assistant director, who has helped him without any clue of his origin. He finally becomes aware of what has happened when he sees a poster mentioning the 140th anniversary of the fall of the shogunate (which would put us at 2007-08). The film leans toward farce as we see him struggling with a vacuum cleaner and awed by a television. So far, so normal.

But it shifts gradually toward something deeper. Kosaka waxes poetic over the pure white of a rice ball and becomes tearful when he is given a piece of foreign shortcake, moved that normal households can now enjoy such luxury. He learns that jidaigeki are dying out, which recalls for him the dying out of the samurai ethos itself. He throws himself into his work with great dedication. His prowess as a second-tier actor earns him an invitation to take a lead role alongside a big star making his comeback – only to discover that this is the sworn enemy he was poised to kill before the lightning strike. That samurai, who recognized his counterpart from his fighting skill on screen, had also flown forward in time but to an era 30 years earlier, making them much different in age now. Kosaka initially turns the offer down, but ultimately agrees to set aside their ancient grievance and work with him. But when he learns that his clan was mercilessly wiped out to the last woman and child, he feels that he must defend his honor as a samurai. He insists on using real swords for their climactic scene, to which the older samurai agrees. On a tense set, they face off…

The film admirably avoids the temptation for the most part to go for over-the-top farce. It finds its humor largely in character rather than visuals. The slow fadeout of the jidaigeki genre acts as a metaphor for Japanese culture as a whole, as the plea from the older samurai implies. The film gets a bit talky and repetitive in parts, hammering the message a bit too forcefully; it would benefit from some trimming from its 130-min running time. And of course we have to take a lot for granted in fantasies like this. Still, the characters are well drawn, and the plot is varied enough to sustain interest throughout. It also offers an amusing surprise ending.

Much of its success rests on 52-year-old Yamaguchi Makiya in a stoic and utterly convincing portrayal of Kosaka, his first lead role. He approaches the part without any of the typical exaggerated clowning that plagues Japanese comedies. His chambara skills are superb as well. Not everyone in the film is able to steer clear of the usual overacting, but his dominant performance easily offsets that. He received a well-deserved nomination for a Japan Academy Award, an achievement for a small film. Fuke Norimasa as the older samurai and Sakura Yuno as the assistant director were fine as well.

The chambara scenes overall were extremely satisfying, especially the final clash between the two genuine samurai, which ranks among the best fight scenes I’ve ever seen. I’m amazed that this could be done on such a limited budget. Apparently Toei, a major studio, liked the script and offered its sadly underused jidaigeki studios along with costumes and wigs. The production values are thus impressively high.

Some parts recalled another award-winning film about the making of a jidaigeki, Kamata Koshinkyoku (Fall Guy): an egotistical young lead, a potentially fatal stunt, a director more excited about the death scene than the possible death, the delay in filming the last scene as the kirareyaku keeps them waiting. I doubt any of that was conscious imitation, but it all made more sense in this film.

A surprising and enjoyable turn on both the time-travel and jidaigaki genres. A big thumbs up.