A review of the Japanese remake of "Unforgiven."

[waywardsage]

I got to watch the US premier of Ken Wantanabe's Unforgiven last night at LA EigaFest 2013 in Hollywood. I know there was some controversy about the film on here so I wanted to share my impressions of it.

A lot of care was put into transplanting the basic story into the Japanese frontier of post Edo Japan. It's based in 1880's Hokkaido. And the filmmakers spent a lot of time dropping hints at how this area was pretty much the home of the samurai that refused to get on board with the new Meiji era. In many ways, this film is the ultimate denouement of the Samurai era. They have long outlived their place in society and they no longer fit in this new age.

The film touches on a lot of little things such as the native Ainu culture, the Satsuma-Choshu clans, the fall of the Shogunate and the plight of the low born samurai in the Meiji era. I was unprepared at how "Samurai" this film ultimately was. I originally walked in not expecting it to be that tightly intertwined into the history and culture of the samurai. Also, the director took great pains at including the Ainu and the way the Japanese oppressed them. To my knowledge, it's the first time on a big international film that this has ever been shown.

Ken Wantanabe, director Sang-il Lee and the producer did a Q&A afterward and answered a lot of the audiences questions. At the after party, I was able to chat with the director and found him to be very well spoken, (through a translator) and thoughtful with his adaptation of the script. He was very conscious of the meaning of every little detail of what he included in the film and was very patient in explaining his reasoning for doing so.

Overall, I encourage you all to check the film out in theaters. Does it adhere closely with the American version? Sure. But it's not a direct copy as some have mentioned. Is it a disappointment? By all means, no! What director Sang-il Lee has crafted is an amazing adaptation of a modern American classic through the unique cultural lens of the post-samurai era.