Samurai Marathon

It is literally a film about a marathon, so there's not much action. It is interesting though, to see people cheat in the marathon even back then!

Samurai Marathon is apparently based on a true story, or, at least, on true events. That is why the movie was just a bit ... I wouldn't say boring but it lacked intensity. Usually, with samurai movies you expect action scenes that can take your breath away, wonderful speeches about greatness and deep emotions. Here, you get nice characters, but a flat story.

The action scenes were okay, but just a bit boring. The characters, moreover, were interesting, but they were too many to follow and that's why the movie couldn't handle them and they ended up falling through the cracks and disappearing.

The performances, as expected, were brilliant. The movie was packed with Japan's big names (I mean Sato Takeru was one of the leads and that is enough reason to watch this one).

So, overall, six out of ten.

C'mon man. I give it a solid 8. The Japanese film makers are really just masters at story telling. This is a great story with numerous side-stories of a remote Japanese regional "Lord" ordering a Marathon to his retainers, as he is supicious of the newly arrived Americans and wants to see if his retainers are in shape. There has been peace in Japan at this point well over 200 years. The Big Shogun gets a mistake message sent to him by one of his spies that the guy is preparing to war with Shogun, so Shogun sends out some assassins with American-gifted pistols...it is impeccably acted and photographed, a nuanced story that is historic, amusing and just hints at tragedy in a very clever way. Not everything has to be special effects and blazing action. A good story is the root and DNA of film, more thn anything else.

I'm used to seeing Japanese movies which are way over-the-top and crazy. I'm thinking of Machine Girl, Prison School, Battle Royale, etc. But some of their movies are sort of a documentation of Japanese history and culture. This one was presented with both a sense of drama, and a sense of humor. This movie is high quality. I gave it only six stars; because I rate movies on how much I enjoyed them, not on their perceived quality. Seen on Tubi, the free streaming site.

As a big fan of the golden age of chanbara I've been enjoying the recent revival of Samurai movies that possibly started as far back as Samurai Fiction and the Castle of Owls remake and then got its big push with Kitano's Zatoichi adaptation. However despite their creative new take on the genre even the best recent chanbara like shinobi no kuni, sanada ten braves, sekigahara or Tsukamoto's Killing usually suffer from many internal inconsistencies in tone and quality which prevents them from truly ushering in an era of new classics if you will.

Samurai Marathon is among the first to feel like a complete movie. Great acting and production value, lots of drama, sprinkles of humour and warmth, meaningful action scenes and a memorable score by freaking Philip Glass(!?!). I didn't expect much but I was pleasantly surprised.

The movie starts off deliberately slow, introducing all the characters and their little rural castle town one by one, you'd think this will just be a fairly light-hearted feel-good movie set to the backdrop of the waning years of the Samurai rule in feudal Japan. Each character has their own motivations why they would want to win the marathon. The price: they can ask whatever they wish from their lord. Some are in it for selfish reasons, others just want a better life for their families. The stakes are already high enough here when the movie starts to shift gears dramatically once the marathon starts, introducing a deadly threat to the entire town that is bigger than each characters' troubles combined. I'm not going to give the plot away but the last third is legitimately tense without ever feeling forced.

Part of what brings all the elements together so well is veteran Bernard Rose's expert direction. He has a real sensibility for the genre and for japanese culture. It never feels like you're watching a movie by a foreign director. The pacing comes off like a throwback to older chanbara movies leaving lots of space inbetween action scenes, where you can just soak in the atmosphere and the beauty of the landscapes. The DP here was Takuro Ishizaka who also lent his hand to the underrated Sakuran and the live action Rurouni Kenshin films. There is other miscellaneous personnel overlap most notably in main actor Takeru Sato, but the whole cast is on point, the biggest standout for me being relative newcomer Nana Komatsu.

This is one movie to check out. Enjoyable from beginning to end, sometimes funny, sometimes violent, sometimes dramatic. A full package.