A Samurai in Time

About the film

With one strike of lightning, samurai Kosaka Shinzaemon accidentally teleports through time and finds himself in modern-day Japan. However, his realisation doesn’t hit so quickly, because of all places, he happens to land on a period drama film set! After facing the director’s wrath for veering away from a script he has no idea about, Kosaka is saved by a kind assistant director. The samurai soon comes to terms with his troubling situation and learns to make a living as a kirareyaku, a swordsman whose job is to die spectacularly on film. Mesmerised by the world of showbiz, will Kosaka adapt to his new reality, or will the grudges of the Edo period war slice his life apart?

A Samurai in Time was made in memory of Seizo Fukumoto, Japan’s leading kirareyaku, who died more than 50,000 times on camera. With Makiya Yamaguchi in the lead role, this fish-out-of-water comedy pays homage to samurai cinema.

Japanese. English subtitles. 2 hours 11 minutes.

Directed by

Junichi Yasuda

Studio

Third Window Films

Distributed by

Third Window Films