Ken Watanabe

Ken Watanabe

The Last Samurai was on last weekend. I timed the chores beforehand so I could watch it (the fourth time) with the least amount of interference, well except for the commercials. It was no doubt very Hollywood, an epic tailored for Tom Cruise, by Tom Cruise but I thought it was a darn good movie. The first time I watched it was because Tom Cruise starred in it. After that, it's all Ken Watanabe. Without him, the movie would have lost most of its appeal.

Watanabe had this presence about him on screen that managed to eclipse everyone else. His piercing gaze spoke volumes of whatever emotion he was trying to convey, sadness, pain, pride. He was very convincing playing a samurai lord, with his height, 6'2" and biography of playing samurai on the small screen. I also read up on bushido afterwards to see if the movie did justice to it. Well, what was repeated again and again was that samurais followed a strict code of honor, were highly disciplined and literate and would rather commit seppuku rather than losing honor or being shamed. Lord Kasamoto was all that.

Critics wrote the movie glazed over the true history of the Meiji Restoration and glamorized the order of samurai, but I think it was less a historic rendition and more of a fiction focused on values, honor, truth, bravery and camaraderie. Kasamoto fought to the end and died with honor. The last shot of Watanabe before dying was the cherry blossom petals flowing in the wind, "perfect", his last word. This is what I think of Watanabe's portrayal of Kasamoto, perfect.