|
Previous Page
 loyalty is another
aspect to which i pay my respect. they have their honor and duty to fulfill and
is generous enough to respect the honors of others, even in time
of their deaths.
when omura ordered his troops to fire towards the dying
samurais, the officer refused. to refuse an order from the commander is the
most disloyal thing to do, and yet, it is the proudest and the
most moving act.
when
katsumoto was dying, he found his absolute peace. he even used the
word “perfect” to
describe his own death. “they are all perfect.” was his
last words when he saw the blossoms over algren’s shoulder. (see explanatory passage
below.) so it was
inner peace he seeked.
interestingly, that relateds to the words of graham, which
when referring to algren, wrote that he “found at last some
small measure of peace that we all seek, but few of us ever find.”
one little
thing that fails to convince me as i watched the movie is that
katsumoto spoke in english when he was dying. how can a person speak
another language other than his mother tongue on the verge of
death? and we never
knew as to why he was able to speak in english in the first
place. it was never
explained in the movie (or did i skipped it somewhere?). however, after reading
the script, (i don’t know how i squeezed out so much time) it was
explained that every member of the council need to learn
english. well, that
kinda explains it.
a beautiful passage, narrated by
algren, reminded me of another scence from another movie. “for so
long now, i have managed to convince myself that there was
nothing worth believing in.
certainly nothing worth dying for. now I’m not so sure. and so, for the first
time in my life, i am truly afraid. not of dying. but of losing something worth living for.” it reminded me of a song from
“fiddler on the roof” called “now i have everything”. despite the joyous tune
and spirit behind this song, it unveils the same message: one
needs something to live for, more so than something to die for.
i would like to
end this long long moview with the following clip from the
script, which is only partially shown on the big screen. hopefully this will clear
up some puzzles referring to the blossoms, and complete the whole
“perfect” picture.
katsumoto: “a perfect blossom is
a rare thing. you
could spend your life looking for one and it would not be a
wasted life.”
katsumoto: “before you were a
soldier, you were a farmer.”
algren: “what does
that have to do with anything?”
katsumoto: “you
lived on a farm. or in a
forest of trees.”
algren: “how do
you know?”
katsumoto: “the way
you look at the cherry blossoms.”
algren: (reluctantly) “we lived
in a place called connecticut.
my...brother and I
climbed the maple trees.”
katsumoto: “were they
beautiful?”
algren: “yes.”
katsumoto: “and you
were sad to see them die in the winter.”
a beat. something
flickers in algren’s
eyes.
katsumoto: “you were
something before you were a soldier. you were a
boy who was sad to see the leaves fall and the trees
die.”
katsumoto looks
at him deeply.
katsumoto: “like
those trees, we are all dying. the
future is an
illusion, our plans are an illusion, our fear’s an
illusion. we live
life in every breath. every cup of tea. every
word we write. every
blossom we hold.”
he smiles
sadly.
katsumoto: “every
life we take.”
a beat. he
stands, takes in the beautiful cherry orchard.
katsumoto: “life in
every breath. that is bushido. the way
of the samurai.”
so the film title “last samuria”
refers to katsumoto, not algren. hope that sounds less ironic to cal.
|