Western Samurai movies: We must preserve our honor above all else. Honor is everything (#honor)
Japanese Samurai Movies:
What I'm saying is Westerns were already the Samurai movies of the west
(literally)
Sukiyaki Western Django (dir by Takashi Miike, 2008) is a beautiful meditation on the history of Cowboy/Samurai films and the concept of cultural exchange in general. It's incredible. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for something really surreal and goofy (it's phonetically acted in English!) but also stylish as hell and thematically weighty. Just make sure you watch the original Japanese cut. The international cut is missing 22 minutes of footage!
Sukiyaki Western Django is a must watch for Yusuke Iseya fans. I don't think he (or any other human being) has ever looked better than this. Though it wasn't based on a comic, this movie is some of the best live action manga you'll ever see.
Back to the original joke post, my point is that Western takes on samurai stories (should have said stories in general not just films) tend to be uncritical and romanticized and focused on "honor" while Japanese samurai stories tend to not do all that.
Most well regarded/popular samurai films from Japan tend to be critical of samurai and don't have a fixation on "honor". More thoughts (with brief references to actual films) here:
More food for thought: most Samurai in Japanese media (movies, games, comics, anime) don't wear samurai armor. Armor is for going to war, not for going about your life!
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