this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Early_To_Risa
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Anon watches The Last Samurai (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 8 months ago by Early_To_Risa to c/greentext
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I found this comment while looking for the quote.

The words samurai is considered the plural form. The movie is about Lord Katsumoto and his clan of samurai during the period in the transformation of Japan from a feudal society into a modern industrial power. Not exclusively about Tom Cruise’s character. Katsumoto felt that Japan was changing too rapidly and it’s losing its cultural values and traditions in the rush to become regional power.

Still not interested in seeing a Tom Cruise movie, but it's an interesting insight that goes past the normal knee jerk reaction.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Still not interested in seeing a Tom Cruise movie

Cool dude alert

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What has two thumbs and doesn't like Tom Cruise?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

He's a weird dude, but a decent actor. Credit where credit is due.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

He is part of a cult that kills people. Its fine not to support him based on that

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 4 points 8 months ago

I'm not suggesting anyone should "support" him, I'm just saying he's a decent actor. That's it.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

"Allllriggghhhhhhtyy then"

That's the guy right?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Hate the guy, love the actor. He just makes mostly great movies.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Oh yeah, it's absolutely a very interesting period in Japanese history and if Cruise's character was used as a symbol of the fear of westernization of Japan post Meiji Restoration, that would be cool. Most of the criticism revolved around Hollywood's habit of using western actors to tell other people's stories. Samurai being is own plural form is just a happy accident that makes the jokes easier.

But he was just there as a big name for box office draw, and probably as an excuse to ditch a lot of subtitles. If I'm inclined to be ungenerous, I have a few other suspicions as well.

It's kind of like Kundun vs. Seven Years in Tibet. It's as if a studio executive said "Yeah, that's a great story, but let's stick Brad Pitt in there to put asses in seats." But at least with the latter, it was based on a book written by the real life traveler.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The words samurai is considered the plural form

That's... not how Japanese works

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

English (like any other language) likes to take loan words and apply its conventions to them, regardless of what the original language does. "Samurai" is singular and plural in English.

"The Last Samurai" is vague in who it's referring to.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I said Japanese though, not English. "samurai" is both singular and plural in both languages

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

What are you arguing about? The statement I quoted said that "samurai" is plural. Nothing that you said has contradicted that. In fact, you're only agreeing with it with this last statement. Doesn't matter that it didn't mention if it can be used as singular as it's not relevant.