“A Samurai in Time” capped its against-all-odds success story Friday at the 48th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony, where it received the award for best film.
Director Junichi Yasuda’s heartfelt tribute to jidaigeki (period dramas) centers on a samurai who is transported from the late 1860s to modern-day Kyoto. Finding himself on a jidaigeki set, he soon becomes a kirare-yaku — an actor specializing in dying during sword-fighting scenes — and falls in love with the genre.
A true Cinderella story, “A Samurai in Time” was shot on a shoestring budget — funded in part by Yasuda selling his car and borrowing from his savings — with a small crew of just 10 people. Initially released in a single Tokyo cinema last August, the film gained momentum through word-of-mouth praise. By October, it had expanded to theaters nationwide and climbed into the box-office top 10.
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