Rewatched The Last Samurai. How was Tom Cruise the only survivor in the final battle with the 30k Army men VS 500 Samurai.

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Mister Terrific

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More egregious is the film making out peasant farmers revolting against Samurai caste rule to establish a liberal democracy as a “bad thing” and that Bushido gobbledygook that the feudal samurai landlords used to basically enslave the population was somehow worth keeping around.

I remember going to a museum in Japan and they had a diorama of peasant fisher man standing up to samurai trying to take their stock. It was enlightening how the samurai are white washed in western media as protectors of Japan instead of the aristocracy like most of the time didn’t fight, and sat around all day writing poetry.
 
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More egregious is the film making out peasant farmers revolting against Samurai caste rule to establish a liberal democracy as a “bad thing” and that Bushido gobbledygook that the feudal samurai landlords used to basically enslave the population was somehow worth keeping around.

I remember going to a museum in Japan and they had a diorama of peasant fisher man standing up to samurai trying to take their stock. It was enlightening how the samurai are white washed in western media as protectors of Japan instead of the aristocracy like most of the time didn’t fight, and sat around all day writing poetry.


Wait, so the samurai are bad people :ohhh:
 

Mister Terrific

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Wait, so the samurai are bad people :ohhh:
More like people enforcing an oppressive system. Japan was very nearly a slave society where the tax rate on citizens was 60%-90% of your income. In feudal Europe it was 25% for reference. There was a law called “kirisutte gomen” where Samurai had the right to kill for any offense. Reports from Portuguese missionaries that the infanticide rate in villages was almost 30% because mothers couldn’t afford to take care of their babies.

Keep in mind there were upper rank samurai that oppressed lower rank samurai too. The reason peasants weren’t allowed to carry weapons was because they kept revolting. Sai’s, Tonfa’s, nunchucks, karate? Farm tools and unarmed combat developed to defend property from samurai.

The Meiji restoration itself is massively celebrated in Japan. The liberal reformers and political thinkers and poets - think founding fathers in America - are honored. Samurai were seen as bad omens and bad luck. Samurai is in your village? Hide your money and daughters.

The notion that Samurai never surrendered or always committed seppuku after losing is hilarious as well. Samurai surrendered all the time, and who the hell wants to commit suicide? You’d be stripped of your land and title and become a Ronin and they were hated too. That’s if they weren’t caught by peasants and killed for their armor or heads to sell

Sounds like guys that peasants respected?


Yeah Last Samurai is bunk history and like the advanced stage of the “noble savage” trope.


Btw that’s just in Japan. Look up what Samurai did in the Imjin wars when they invaded Korea.
 
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