Samurai Marathon
2019 Japanese film
Samurai Marathon (Japanese: サムライマラソン, Hepburn: Samurai Marason) is a 2019 Japanese-British historical action adventure film co-written and directed by Bernard Rose and starring Takeru Satoh, Nana Komatsu and Mirai Moriyama. It is based on the 2014 novel The Marathon Samurai: Five Tales of Japan’s First Marathon by Akihiro Dobashi, itself inspired by the origin story of the Ansei Toashi 30-km footrace held annually in Annaka City.
01Plot summary
In 1855, a daimyo sends his men on a grueling marathon to discover if they're tough enough to face the newly arrived Americans. Misunderstanding his intent, the Shogun dispatches assassins.
02Cast
- Takeru Satoh as Karasawa Jinnai
- Nana Komatsu as Princess Yuki
- Mirai Moriyama as Tsujimura Heikurō
- Shōta Sometani as Uesugi Hironoshin
- Munetaka Aoki as Ueki Yoshikuni
- Ryu Kohata
- Yuta Koseki
- Motoki Fukami
- Shinsuke Katō
- Joey Iwanaga
- Ruka Wakabayashi
- Mariko Tsutsui
- Mugi Kadowaki
- Nao
- Junko Abe
- Taishi Nakagawa
- Naoto Takenaka as Kurita Mataemon
- Danny Huston as Commodore Perry
- Etsushi Toyokawa as Ioki Suketora
- Hiroki Hasegawa as Itakura Katsuakira
03Release
The film was released in theaters in Japan in February 2019. It was later featured at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2019. Well Go USA Entertainment acquired North American distribution rights to the film in July 2019. The film was released on VOD and digital platforms in May 2020. It was also released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States on July 21, 2020.
04Reception
The film has a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. James Hadfield of The Japan Times awarded the film three stars out of five.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Samurai Marathon”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Samurai marason.jpg by Unknown author, Fair use
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