The reason I am not giving it a 10 is because I am comparing it with others of Fujisawa's work that were filmed. The story such as this one is not on the level of Yamada's work, where he expanded it dramatically and making them into grand epics such as The Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei) and The Hidden Blade (Kakushi ken: Oni no tsume).
But compare to others such as After the Flowers (Hana no Ato) , At the Cherry Tree (Yamazakura), At River's Edge (Ogawa no Hotori), and even Sword of Desperation (Hisshiken Torisashi) this one is far superior in story and execution. I'd even put it higher than A Samurai I Loved (Semi Shiguri).
The story itself is much different in some ways than the others mentioned above. Without giving spoilers, it is much more heavily focused on romance against the backdrop of Edo's feudal system. Even more so, the characters were much more realistic than caricatures.
The main character himself is also very different than other characters, being an old man but also a person seeking redemption. He still shares the same theme in that he is the personification of genuine honor and respect, against a system of hypocrisy that only mimic outward appearance of honor but were in fact extremely corrupt. However, he is not a typical rigid samurai, nor carry himself as one. As said, he is a man seeking redemption from the mistakes of his past.
You may mistaken the story at first as focused on the grand niece Mia, but the real story is focused on the old man. And the director brilliantly organized the story structure with the final reveal in the most heart-wrenching story that brings it altogether and we realized who this old man was and why he is doing what he is doing.
The parallelism of his past and present with his grand niece Mia's own story is beautifully connected and the ending was near perfect in line of both western and samurai film as the old man walks proudly to face his fate.
8/10
Excellent film, often overlooked because it is a TV movie. But if no one told you so, you would not realize it and think this is a theatrical release.
