¡°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 ¡ª an actor specializing in dying during sword-fighting scenes ¡ª and falls in love with the genre.
A true Cinderella story, ¡°A Samurai in Time¡± was shot on a shoestring budget ¡ª funded in part by Yasuda selling his car and borrowing from his savings ¡ª 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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