A Samurai in Time

Kosaka (Makiya Yameguchi) is a samurai in the late Edo period and is doing his job of fighting his superiors' foes when a lightning storm interrupts his swordwork. Knocked out, he wakes up to find himself in what looks like the same Kyoto in the same period, but then he starts to see people dressed in strange clothes and odd items all around him - the storm has projected him 140 years into the future and it is just his luck that he happens to find himself on the set of a jidaigeki (period drama) television series! Although this particular style of TV is dying out, there are still a few last gasps left, and the production company is always in need of stunt swordsmen, especially if they're adept at (choreographed) fighting and dying in cinematic ways....

This film is perhaps my favourite of those I've seen at Montreal's Fantasia Festival this year. It is by turns funny and violent (you never saw so many gruesome deaths by sword that made you laugh out loud), but there's a real heart to the story too - an early scene, where Kosaka sees a television show of the jidaigeki he turned up in, has the samurai moved to tears, and of course there's a love interest (that's not overplayed, yay!). There are several twists and turns that were completely unexpected, and the denouement is just.... wonderful. Definitely a good time to be had, and well worth searching out; recommended!

The story begins in mid eval Japan, where two have been tasked with love, a warrior who the emperor. They are waiting for their opponent at the gate of a temple. The gate opens and the they were waiting for appears, with whom the two begin a fight. The story moves to the present day, to a film studio where a television series is being filmed. Is a historical that focuses specifically on the.

Era of the in Japan. One of the named travels in time from the era to the present day.

Through various coincidences, ends up as an actor in a television series, where he proves to be unusually authentic precisely because of his background.

Hey, so, this is a great film.

It definitely has a niche appeal, hence only 2 reviews existing here at time of writing.

But I would say this film was an excellent watch, I very much enjoyed it.

As one understands from the premise, the film production, within a film, aspect, is pretty nice.

(For example they'd explain film techniques which we would all have seen in my period films, and then of course put those techniques to use, and it was all well done)

You can tell everyone was having a good time.

I would say that from a non-Japanese perspective, there was less comedy than I was expecting. I laughed at my enjoyment of what was happening, but I only recall feeling like I was chuckling at jokes that were intentionally there to be jokes.... perhaps twice.

Really this didn't feel like much of a comedy at all. Less so than a Marvel movie for example.

But the acting was great, much better than expected. And the story, heart and soul etc... it was all fantastic.

It was great to see a story like this in live action. Acted so well etc.

It definitely has a low cost, indi feel, but that is what it is. And it goes beyond it's limitations via the acting and story, which, for me, resulted in a supremely entertaining watch.