Twilight Samurai contains a powerful pacifist message about a hero free from the supposedly innate male taste for violence.

| Feb 4, 2020

There is violence -- the gritty, bloody kind, not the balletic jumping off walls variety -- but it is kept firmly in its place and never allowed to take over.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 14, 2008

A story of a father who finds fulfillment in being a father.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 28, 2007

Yamada has a master's touch, creating a foggy rural world of hills, rivers, and trees in springtime

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 13, 2007

gives us a humble family man protagonist who goes against the grain of the stereotypical Samurai archetype

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 20, 2005

A masterpiece about a reluctant warrior

| Jun 10, 2005

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 5, 2005

Deeply humane... a bittersweet, eloquent tribute to a man who is bent but not crushed beneath the weight of his various competing duties.

| Original Score: A | Feb 17, 2005

Twilight Samurai is to Japanese samurai flicks what Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven was to American Westerns.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 19, 2004

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 6, 2004

The film does have some very memorable moments. And Sanada's convincing performance as the world-weary former man of action certainly helps.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 1, 2004

Director Yoji Yamada tenderly portrays Iguchi as an anomaly among the ambitious samurai - a quiet man who would rather farm than fight.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 1, 2004

The story sometimes slips into soapy territory, but when you think the schmaltz is going to ruin it, Yamada gives it just enough of a twist to make you realize this is not your regular romantic film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 24, 2004

With Samurai, faced at 71 with what may have been the most challenging project of his career, [Yamada] blossomed like a gnarled cherry tree exploding in flowers on the last day of spring.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 24, 2004

Yoji Yamada's film has enough nice-guy self-sacrifice and shows of feminine pluck to fuel a Lifetime miniseries. Not that that's a bad thing, given the quiet power that emanates from Sanada's and Miyazawa's dignified performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 16, 2004

Intent on presenting a realistic depiction of mundane life in the 19th century and demystifying a central cultural icon, director Yoji Yamada has crafted a stunningly acted saga that explores the true nature of honor.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 27, 2004

It is awash in the precision and beauty of the mundane and the everyday.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 27, 2004

A determined, resolutely paced, and atypical samurai movie.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 8, 2004

| Original Score: B | Aug 7, 2004

Achingly beautiful and deeply moving, The Twilight Samurai turns a familiar genre inside out and finds it full of dramatic gold.

| Jul 30, 2004