The Twilight Samurai (2002)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0351817/]
The Gist:
The Twilight Samurai is essentially two different films at the same time. The first is a somber drama of an impoverished low rank samurai who lives off of 50 koku of rice (which is kind of the equivalent of working minimum wage) and 20 of that goes to the debt accrued from his late wife's funeral. The rest must support himself, his two daughters, and his ailing mother who doesn't remember who he is most days. And watching this film, I had to think to myself "well this is really good, but they kind of tricked me because this isn't a samurai film at all". That, however, is where The Twilight Samurai gets really good, because it proceeds to blend in two significant duels to the story. The first is almost incidental, but draws the attention of the feudal lords who then order him to take down a clan leader. This second duel functions as both the emotional crux of the film and the height of narrative tension.
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