teppou

[jubaji]

So, in 1543 a Chinese ship gets blown off course and rolls up on an island near Kagoshima. The Portuguese who happened to be on board brought the first firearms to Japan.

In short order the Samurai had adopted them and began developing new battle strategies based on this new technology.

Of course in lots of bad movies (like the unwatchable 'Last Samurai' with rat-face himself) the Samurai are portrayed as - for some unfathomable reason - rejecting an effective new weapon. This notion seems to capture the popular imagination to a significant degree.


Why?

[aseepish]

Maybe watch GOOD movies like Kagemusha, or Ran. It's been ages since I've seen either, but the scenes I remember most vividly are gun-related: The sniper in Kagemusha, and the teppou-equipped squad annihilating an opposing army in Ran.

I saw The Last Samurai when I was in Tokyo. From the number of laughs from the Japanese audience, you'd have thought you were watching a comedy. When "rat-face" started speaking Japanese, people were rolling in the aisles.

Perhaps the symbolism of the katana itself?

[jubaji]

..................bump

[jubaji]

"Rat face"......


It's amazing how much I find myself actually agreeing with you on.

LOL, don't fight it, sooner or later everyone does.

[Ben Grimm]

My Japanese is passable, so when Rat-face started speaking Japanese, I had to laugh, and so did all of my Japanese classmates. This was years before I moved to China of course.

[jubaji]

Yeah, that (as with all of his 'acting') was pretty painful.

[Ben Grimm]

I'm still trying to work out which was worse.

[ScottUK]

I actually enjoyed The Last Samurai. I was expecting far worse.

[jubaji]

It was as bad as I thought it would be.

[mellow]

I actually enjoyed The Last Samurai. I was expecting far worse.

It's decent if you can ignore Tom Cruise

[jubaji]

...........................................

[Ben Grimm]

Rat face needs to take some serious acting lessons. If that Rat face's character was fighting a real samurai inthat time, he would have been decapitated.

[mellow]

Rat face needs to take some serious acting lessons. If that Rat face's character was fighting a real samurai inthat time, he would have been decapitated.

That would make for a short (but entertaining) movie.

[Ben Grimm]

With the emphasis on interesting.

[jubaji]

That would make for a short (but entertaining) movie.

So it would be like him, only entertaining.