The Last Samurai

The mountain behind the village in Edward Zwick’s film is Taranaki in New Zealand, not Fuji, and the village is a set built in the Uruti Valley. The fog battle was staged in Mangamahoe Forest, the drill ground at Pukekura in New Plymouth. Little came from Japan: the emperor’s palace is Chion-in in Kyoto, Katsumoto’s temple Engyo-ji near Himeji. Historians object mainly to the sword against rifle premise. The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 ran unbroken from February to September; the rebels had seized local armouries and fielded artillery and riflemen under modern-trained officers. Saigo Takamori, the model for Katsumoto, wore an imperial officer’s uniform through much of it. Japan was copying the British navy and the Prussian army, so an American drilling the new army is unlikely; the real equivalents were French officers like Jules Brunet, an artilleryman. Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays Ujio and teaches Cruise’s character the sword, came up through Sonny Chiba’s Japan Action Club. The film took more in Japan than in the United States. A good fit if you read the sword’s defeat as chosen romance rather than record and want a long middle given to drill in the village. Not a fit if you expect the Japanese characters at the centre of their own story; the narrative stays tied to the outsider.