Directed by Masaaki Akahori, The Samurai That Night follows a quiet, mild mannered, custard loving and introverted man named Nakamura (Masato Sakai) who has been living a very depressed life after his wife was killed in a hit-and-run. Unable to let go, Nakamura obsessively listens to his wife’s last message on repeat where she tells him to stop eating custard. Years after the accident, the young petty criminal who killed her, named Kijima (Takayuki Yamada), is finally set free and begins to revert back to his old aggressive behavior though things begin to change when letters start arriving from Nakamura that state “I’m going to kill you and then myself” in “X” amount of days, on the anniversary of the actual crime and his wife’s death.
The Samurai That Night is a film that is all anticipation based. As the story continually builds and layers start to unravel, it becomes clear that this drama is evolving into a revenge film and one that follows the ending life of a samurai when one must do an unfortunate deed and then end his own life in order to die honorably. As such, all we can do is patiently wait for that moment when the cue card reads the date that Nakamura has promised to kill Kijima but the build up until then isn’t always fruitful.
Much of the film has to do with trying to get Nakamura out of his depressed funk, getting him to go on dates and try and find another woman. His brother-in-law is doing everything he can to help but Nakamura just wants to continually reflect upon his dead wife, eat custard, work in his shop and conspires to kill Kijima. The other half of the film focuses on Kijima, why he got sent to prison and how he is aggressively trying to avoid being killed and whether he should take Nakamura’s threats seriously. This combination can lead to many awkward and boring scenes but there also some very interesting ones as well.
When we eventually reach the climax of the film it isn’t exactly what you were expecting and feels very underwhelming, but upon further reflection it actually is really good and, honestly, as realistic as it could be. It makes a clear point about the power, or lack thereof, of revenge, the power of the human spirit and the idea of morals and how they play into people’s emotions and actions. When you think about Nakamura’s obsessive personality and inability to let go you can’t help but wonder how nuts this simple metal shop worker will go when the time comes to finally strike.
As quiet and slow as the movie is, its underwhelming nature is mildly satisfying even if it turns out very different than what I expected a movie with the word “samurai” in the title to be. The Samurai That Night is a movie for people looking for a quiet drama, one that’s very different than what you’ve ever seen before because it is revenge fueled, two things that don’t normally go together. I can’t recommend it to everyone but if you’re a fan of Asian cinema and looking for a change of pace I’d say give this one a go, you might be surprised by how much you like it weeks after you finish, that’s what happened with me.
Rating: A quiet revenge film that’d mildly and oddly satisfying despite how underwhelming it actually is (6.3/10)
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