The Changing Characteristics of the Samurai Figure in Japanese Post-WWII Film

This study examined Yoji Yamada's 2002 film, The Twilight Samurai, as an artifact of Japanese culture and a significant modern addition to the Samurai Film genre. It looked at film as an important medium in the communication and reinforcement of cultural values, beliefs, and attitudes. It utilized Frow's (2006) three structural dimensions of genre (formal organization, rhetorical structure, and thematic content) to both define the limitations of the Samurai Film and assess The Twilight Samurai's place within the Samurai canon and impact upon it. More generally, this study found that film genres are forms of collective social ritual, and that the viewing of genre films creates meaning for the individual topics and themes displayed on screen. The critic was able to determine, through a textual analysis of The Twilight Samurai and two of its predecessors, that the Samurai Film has evolved in the portrayal of the classic samurai protagonist, and this shift in characterization may signal a larger change in the cultural and social conditions of Japan.