Isn’t it funny how The Last Samurai always ends up being a white American?
Every so often, I’ll read something in the small columns of a film magazine or an online journal, and if it doesn’t seem particularly noteworthy, I’ll simply compartmentalize, forgetting all about it until it either hits at the cinema or appears on the new release shelf at my local supermarket or HMV, or wherever. Hirokin – The Last Samurai falls into the latter category – a straight-to-DVD futuristic sci-fi adventure starring Wes Bentley, most recently seen in this Springs’ smash hit, The Hunger Games. Led by first-time writer and director Alejo Mo-Sun, the end result is a deeply frustrating, visually rich film that suffers from sub-par writing and characterisation throughout.
The story of Hirokin (the titular character played by Wes Bentley) is familiar – a mysterious drifter in a barren world is fated to save a forgotten, abused people – the Arrids – from the clutches of their worlds’ evil dictator, Griffin. As the film progresses, Hirokin finds himself torn between defending the Arrids and seeking revenge for the loss of his family at the hands of Griffin, some seven years earlier.
Hirokin is a hugely flawed attempt at science fiction – not terrible or unwatchable – but hard to follow or really care about. Characters talk in a bizarre fashion – not like real people would but parodies of characters from 1960s epics. Some of the action scenes are plain lazy – stabbed in the ‘side’ to save on CGI, that kind of thing – don’t think I didn’t notice that, film-makers of Hirokin, because I did. I saw it three or four times, in fact; in one scene, Hirokin manages to escape his pursuers by simply moving in front of the camera, seemingly allowing him time to slip past behind them to safety. Dear readers, I’ll just leave you trying to figure that one out by yourselves if you don’t mind, and if you figure it out, let me know, because I’m still at a loss.
The pace of the film feels all wrong, too. Hirokin begins slowly – with a flashback dream sequence – and drags for the first 30 minutes in particular, without really bothering to properly introduce or justify the motives of any of the numerous cast of characters. Hirokin himself drifts from one scene to the next, with little in the way of true motivation or logical reason. I felt for Wes Bentley here, as nothing about his own performance gave me any indication that he wanted any true part of this. If you’ve seen American Beauty, The Hunger Games, or almost anything he’s appeared in previously, you’ll know for yourselves, he’s much better than this film would demonstrate.
What was really frustrating was that the film actually looks very beautiful; evoking Dune, Star Wars and even Firefly during its finer moments – the deep reds and oranges of the films’ hazy, arrid desert-lands are captured by someone with a clear eye for vivid cinematography. What’s a shame is how all of this is totally wasted on a mostly lifeless screenplay that clearly needs some doctoring, or at very least, a second opinion.
I would almost guarantee there will be people tuning out after the first 30 minutes, unable to justify the continued investment of time; whilst it does mildly improve during the 70-odd minutes that remain, you’ll likely wish you hadn’t bothered – like me. Avoid.
Deryn O’Sullivan (@silverscene_)
Deryn Paul O'Sullivan 