I love this movie so much

Great Film overall

Better Late Then Never

A Major Disappointment

A samurai gives up his sword and deserts his clan, a crime for which he is sentenced to an unusual punishment - make the morose kid of the local Lord smile in 30 days, or commit ritual suicide.This is a film in three parts; the tonally opaque opening 20 minutes, the mid-section which is a series of comic skits as the hapless samurai (Takaaki Nomi) plugs vainly away at his task, and a final section that turns the genre slightly on its head.The grubby, goggle-eyed Nomi is a far cry from the usual chanbara samurai. The visual predominance is kept throughout as Nomi says hardly a word in his downward spiral of diminishing dignity. Quite how he will regain that dignity is the journey of this protagonist. Sea Kumada, as his unforgiving daughter, gives a formidable performance as Tae, who excoriates her father for his failures, before rallying to his cause as he ganbarus through his thankless task. Hers will prove the most redeeming journey of all.As you expect from Matsumoto, who is never afraid to take chances, some of the comedy works better than others. The timing is perfect and the elaborate set ups leading to brief execution and abrupt cuts away are stock of TV skit comedy here, but the transfer to the big screen works well. Three assassins brought in for, ahem, comic relief are rather flat and strained. The ending is less maudlin than it could have been, thanks to the astute reactions of Kumada.The film is good fun with genuine laugh-out-loud moments. It has more heart than you'd expect, though the ending doesn't quite reach the heights it sets itself. It displays all the marks of Matsumoto, and fans of the Downtown star will not be disappointed.

I think there are some elements of truth to what the reviewer above says. I, too, wondered if the picture was going anywhere after the shaky start. A lot of the humor consists of loopy sight gags, and the protagonist hardly says a word throughout the picture.A toothless samurai with no sword, a fugitive with a little girl tagging along behind him, he is captured when he wanders into the fiefdom of an unsympathetic Lord. The Lord tells him that, because he is a dishonored samurai he must commit seppuku (off himself) in 30 days, unless he can make his son, the Prince, smile. The Prince's mother recently died and he is grief-stricken.Here proceeds a succession of sight gags, one a day, to make the Prince smile - but no luck. Some are funny, some not so, and some very elaborate, and I agree that American and Japanese funny bones must be in different places. The 30 day sequence of slapstick was as remarkable as it was noteworthy.But at some point during the story I began to realize that Noki, the doomed samurai, had a death wish, that he didn't want to be saved. He apparently felt dishonor at his own wife's death as he was unable to save her, abandoned his sword, and wandered about. At about this same point, the movie was taken over by his 8 year old daughter, Tae, who tagged along behind and became his conscience and his cheerleader. I can't remember when I have seen a better acting job by a child, as she was exceptional and figuratively towered over everyone else in the cast.This is basically a black comedy which nearly ends as a tragedy, but at the very end is uplifting and in a spiritual vein. The whole movie fell into place in the last twenty minutes and I came away with a good feeling. I hope I was right - after all, I'm from the West.

Director Hitoshi Matsumoto (best noted for his bizarrely funny debut, BIG MAN JAPAN) has a filmmaking approach strongly influenced by Japanese television; if film relates to his output, it's primarily through TV skits and parody. It's to our benefit that we can enjoy a film like SCABBARD SAMURAI - the story of a buffoon with coke-bottle glasses on the lam from the clan. He's forced to endure a strange punishment: he will win clemency from a local lord - if he can make his forlorn son smile. The set-up is far-fetched, spiced up with stock characters from familiar Japanese genre films. The remainder of the film, and the scabbard samurai's life, is spent trying to come up with increasingly elaborate gags, which capture the imagination of the populace. The gags are funny in a desperate, straight faced sort of way - not unlike a Japanese Buster Keaton - making for classic physical comedy.Matsumoto doesn't act in SCABBARD SAMURAI; instead, he relies on visual narrative and an appealing cast of supporting actors to tell its story. Some might prefer BIG MAN JAPAN with its insane special effects, but SCABBARD SAMURAI captures Matsumoto's comic talents in a plot that's engrossing and genuinely amusing.

are we standing on the same planet, dude? are you sure that the western sense of humor is the same as that of the Japanese? for years i have been watching lot of clueless moronic films made in hong kong, china, Hollywood or even from europe, but this Japanese film is definitely on top of such list. yeah, maybe there's something inexplainable Japanese humor that this film's screenplay writer had tried to deliver, or those Japanese producers suddenly pulled their heads out of the sand and started reading stupid comic books drawn by those Otaku宅男 or ハウス宅女 who all lived in their iron-clad Ivory towers, dreamed up weird and illogic scenarios, plots, storyline to fool themselves and entertain those brain-dead generation. so they think this screenplay of 'Scabbard Samurai' was a rare find and god send. on the other hand, the production of this film was quite serious, serious about the settings, the scenes, the props, costumes, the casting job....almost all stuff involved in a serious production were well prepared. the film came out very smoothly and very easy to watch but, WTF?! it's absolutely stupid and worthless! don't tell me how great this film is, how you saw it and grasped the whole nine yards of the meaning of this film, how you consider it's the milestone that the Japanese movie industries finally primed itself from puberty to maturity. NO! because there's nothing in it but absurdity and childishness. it's just like a worthless Japanese 3rd level comic book, mixed up with super nature, traditional Japanese samurai genre, ghost story, parenthood, merciless tyranny....whatever you might dream up, it's in the movie, the only thing they didn't throw in was 'child abuse', dude.this comic samurai kept running, three mysterious assassins tried to kill him without probable causes, cut him from the back (the blood ejected like oil well in Texas), shot him at the head from behind (the blood exploded like fireworks on 4th of july!), snapped and broke his neck from behind. yeah, just like general MacArthur said: "old soldier never die but faded away...." this ugly comedian samurai never died, but later, mysteriously died by his seppuku. in order to let people believe this samurai legend really lived and exited in Japanese history, the director decided to post a tombstone with his name on it which is still on the street corner of wherever you think it is.what a waste of money and time on both sides, the production team and we, the viewers. don't try to fool me and others that you, only you understood what's going on to prove how intelligent and how deep you are. you should know that when you look down upon the garbage littered around your feet, or dogs' crap, you know it's garbage, and you know it's so stink that you should not step on it. oh, what a waste.