The Tiny Fish-out-of-Water Tale That's Taken the Film World by Storm

Special Screening: "A Samurai in Time" (Samurai Taimu Surippa) followed by a Q&A with
rice farmer- director Junichi Yasuda and actor Makiya Yamaguchi

Tuesday, April 15 at 6:00 pm

In Japanese with English subtitles
Japan 2024 131 minutes  

Written and directed by: Junichi Yasuda
Produced by: Junichi Yasuda
Starring: Makiya Yamaguchi, Norimasa Fuke, Yuno Sakura, Rantaro Mine, Ken Shonozaki,
Yoshiharu Fukuda, Ichiko Kurenai, Hajime Inoue, Tsutomu Tamura

Film courtesy of Gaga Corporation

After learning the filmmaking ropes while shooting wedding videos during college, third-generation rice farmer Junichi Yasuda tried his hand at directing a feature film about a middle-aged superhero. It lost 5 million yen. A few years later, he directed a film about a female farmer that featured beautiful scenes of rice fields blowing in the wind. That film took three years to recoup its tiny budget. And then Yasuda wrote a script about a time-traveling samurai. With funds he'd drawn from his own meager savings and by selling his car, he convinced the venerable Toei Studios Kyoto to let him shoot the film on their expansive jidaigeki backlot. Yasuda himself served as director, producer, cinematographer, production manager, gaffer, visual effects wizard and editor. His total crew numbered just 10.

And the rest is history.

"A Samurai in Time" world premiered at Montreal's popular Fantasia International Film Festival in August 2024, just before its scheduled release in one small Japanese cinema. Against all odds, it clinched the Gold Audience Award in Canada, immediately earning invitations to scores of other film festivals. At home, after weeks of sold-out screenings and positive word of mouth, the film was picked up by Gaga, which began rolling it out to over 400 cinemas nationwide.

Within months, "A Samurai in Time," completed on a minuscule budget of just 26 million yen ($170,000), climbed into the Top 10 at the box office. It would go on to rival records for independent films, grossing more than double most Hollywood hits in Japan. And in mid-March 2025, at the 48th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony, "A Samurai in Time" became the first-ever independent feature to win the top Best Film Award, along with a Best Editor trophy for Yasuda.

In the crowd pleaser, Shinzaemon Kosaka (Yamaguchi, in his first leading role), a proud swordsman from the Aizu clan in the late 1860s, draws his blade to fight an adversary on the streets of Kyoto - but with a sudden strike of lightning, finds himself transported to the set of a 21st-century period TV series. Unable to grasp what's befallen him, and terribly homesick, the samurai nevertheless is hired as a "kirareyaku" actor, specializing in the art of dying during battle. But after finally learning to accept his strange new world, Shinzaemon discovers he may not be the only samurai to slip through time…

Please join us to experience Junichi Yasuda's heartfelt tribute to jidaigeki (period dramas) and to discuss the against-all-odds success of "A Samurai in Time."

For more (in Japanese): https://www.samutai.net/

Writer-director-producer-cinematographer-gaffer-editor JUNICHI YASUDA graduated from Osaka University of Economics, and started a videography business ranging from kindergarten recitals to multi-camera event recording and broadcasting. In 2014, he founded Mirai Eigasha and made his first full-length feature, "Kenju to medamayaki." In 2017, he directed his second feature, "Gohan." In 2023, he assumed his family's rice-farming business, which made it difficult to work on video productions. Before finishing his third feature, he said, "If 'A Samurai in Time' doesn't become a hit, I won't be able to continue growing rice."

Actor MAKIYA YAMAGUCHI graduated from the Kyoto Seika University Department of Western Painting and made his acting debut in the 1998 Japanese-Chinese film "The Flowers of Warfield." He first appeared in a jidaigeki period drama with "After the Rain" (1999), and went on to appear in such acclaimed films as "Confessions" (2010) and "Lesson of the Evil" (2012). Yamaguchi's television work includes prominent roles in NHK Taiga dramas and asadora morning dramas, and he has also acted extensively on the stage. "A Samurai in Time" marks his first leading role in a feature film.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk 03 3211-3161 or from the event page.
All film screenings are private, noncommercial events primarily for FCCJ members and their guests.  

 - Karen Severns, Film Committee