A Samurai in Time – Third Window

Director: Junichi Yasuda
Screenplay: Junichi Yasuda
Starring: Makiya Yamaguchi, Norimasa Fuke, Yuno Sakura, Rantaro Mine, Yoshiharu Fukuda
Country: Japan
Running Time: 131 min
Year: 2024
BBFC: 12

The Japanese filmmaker Junichi Yasuda sounds to be a human dynamo. He makes films and promotional videos in Kyoto while working as a rice farmer and running a ramen restaurant. The success of a short he made in the past led him to take the filmmaking idea a little further.

He decided to try and make a feature film, and in 2014, he made Kenjû to Medamayaki. This Kamen Rider spoof played in some small independent cinemas, where it went down well, leading to a larger cinema chain picking it up for a limited run.

The film turned a profit, so Yasuda went on to make another feature, Gohan, again finding relative success with a small-scale release.

Yasuda’s ambition only grew though and, inspired by the runaway success of One Cut of the Dead, he attempted to make a film that could truly break out into the national and international markets.

The film he made was A Samurai in Time. This got off to a strong start, winning the audience award at the Fantasia Film Festival. Then, it opened in Japan in the same cinema in which One Cut… debuted and found similar success. It was subsequently picked up by a national chain and played in around 50 screens, becoming a big hit and even winning Best Picture at the Japan Academy Awards.

I can’t find the final figures but, 3 months after its release in Japan, the film had grossed ¥720 million (approximately £3.7 million) against a reported budget of ¥26 million (approximately £135,000). To fund the production, 57-year-old Yasuda had personally covered the majority of expenses, resorting to selling his car and digging into his life savings. In an interview, he has admitted that, at one point, his bank balance dwindled to a mere ¥7,000, which he joked “makes for good publicity.”

It’s another classic underdog story in Japanese cinema then, following other recent indie successes, such as the aforementioned One Cut… and Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes. Having enjoyed both of those films a great deal when Third Window released them over here, I was excited to learn the label would also be turning their attention to A Samurai in Time. I got hold of a copy to share my thoughts here.

The film tells the story of Kosaka Shinzaemon (Makiya Yamaguchi), a samurai from the Edo period, who is abruptly transported to modern-day Japan by a freak lightning strike. He finds himself disoriented and bewildered, landing on the set of a jidaigeki (period drama). Mistaken for an extra due to his authentic appearance and demeanor, he is quickly thrust into the world of contemporary filmmaking.

Finding an affinity for this new line of work and a fondness for the assistant director Yuko (Yuno Sakura), Shinzaemon begins a new, unexpected career as a “kirareyaku,” an actor specialising in dramatic on-screen deaths.

His genuine skill with a blade and previous life experience soon help him move up the ranks. However, he questions his place in the time period when his past comes back to haunt him.

I found A Samurai in Time to be quite a surprise, even though it’s not dissimilar in tone to another recent genre-bending Japanese indie comedy, River. I think I was expecting Yasuda’s film to be more of a zany fish-out-of-water comedy but it ended up being quite a tender, low-key drama.

That’s not to say A Samurai in Time isn’t without humour though. Indeed, a number of gags are mined from this Edo-period figure being placed in a contemporary setting. These are just played down more than I expected and the wacky premise is taken relatively seriously, overall, with the story becoming a tale of identity and heritage that balances sweetness with melancholy.

It took me a while to settle into the approach but it’s a film that’s easy to watch, even if it didn’t invigorate me as much as I’d hoped.

Much of the charm comes from the cast. Yamaguchi has been in a number of mainstream films, including many jidaigeki, but he thought the project sounded interesting, so he agreed to take the role in this small independent production. He’s perfectly cast here as the middle-aged samurai struggling to find his place in a new world. Sakura has been in all three of Yasuda’s feature films, so must be somewhat of a good-luck charm. She’s a delightful presence, lighting up the screen whenever she appears, helping legitimise Shinzaemon’s love for her character.

The film isn’t perfect. I found the visual style a little bland, with overly clean lighting and uninspiring compositional choices. I thought the jidaigeki-referencing period scenes and final swordfight were suitably atmospheric though.

There’s also an occasional voiceover narration that seems like a bit of an afterthought. I also found it strange that it comes from the Yuko character rather than our protagonist, Shinzaemon.

It’s hard to badmouth such a charming film though, that was made with love by a small 10-person crew. Yasuda took on a lot of the roles himself, and everyone supposedly chipped in on different aspects of the production. This ‘family’ spirit bleeds into the film.

So, whilst A Samurai in Time was not quite the zany comedic spoof I expected, this surprisingly touching, low-key dramedy is nevertheless endearing, even if it didn’t blow me away.

Film:

A Samurai in Time is out on 28th April on region-free Blu-ray, released by Third Window Films. The transfer is suitably sharp and clean, as you’d expect from a new, digitally-shot film. The audio is robust too.

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