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Sometimes foreign language films simply exist across an insurmountable cultural divide that renders them indecipherable here. Hitoshi Matsumoto‘s Saya-zamurai [Scabbard Samurai] perfectly exemplifies through an obtusely-constructed first third before hitting its stride. Comically uneven at the start, I was left scratching my head and wondering if I was missing the joke. An old, toothless samurai with an empty scabbard breathlessly and wordlessly runs through the Japanese countryside with his young daughter following closely behind as three assassins – introduced in freeze-frame – arrive to inflict what should be mortal wounds. The attacks excise the would-be killer and victim from their backgrounds, placing them on black as bright red spurts forth from the aging relic’s body in slomotion. The samurai wails in pain, the girl heals him with a special herb, and it all happens again.

This prologue quickly instills a fear that the rest will end up a long and arduous journey...

Nippon Cinema has some passes to give away for screenings of comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Scabbard Samurai at the upcoming New York Asian Film Festival (June 29-July 15). Skip to the bottom of this post for details!

The movie revolves around a samurai named Nomi Kanjuro (Takaaki Nomi) who loses his sword and tries to run away from his former life with his thoroughly ashamed young daughter Tae (Sea Kumada). It isn’t long before he gets captured and sentenced to commit seppuku for his dishonorable act. Fortunately, the eccentric local daimyo has been giving criminals the opportunity to save themselves by partaking in a special 30-day challenge, which gives Nomi 30 chances to make the daimyo’s young son smile for the first time since the death of his mother.

Nomi’s first few attempts go over like a lead balloon, and the young lord remains as stoic as ever. However,...