What’s a Samurai in the Edo period do when he finds himself transported hundreds of years into the future to the chaotic and confusing world of filmmaking? In his time-slip comedy A Samurai in Time, director Yasuda Junichi gives audiences a highly entertaining look at just what could possibly go wrong or right in this unique premise.
Yamaguchi Makiya stars as Shinzaemon Kosaka, a member of the Aizu clan who awakes in a Kyoto as foreign to him as a film set. As he learns to navigate this world beyond anything he and his compatriots could’ve ever imagined, audiences are given a look at film production from the perspective of someone who’s truly an outsider in every sense of the world.
Having played in numerous jidaigeki genre films and dramas throughout the his career, Yamaguchi is the perfect fit to play a Samurai in both the Edo period, and in the meta context of a modern day Japanese film set.
In my interview with director Yasuda for A Samurai in Time’s North American Premiere at Fantasia Fest, he explained why he chose the Edo period for such a ‘fish out of water’ premise as this, his casting of Yamaguchi Makiya, and practical and creatives benefits of shooting a historical modern-day Samurai film.
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