2010• Comedy•Drama •01h43
After deserting his lord, Kanjuro Nomi, a swordless samurai, is sentenced to death. Unless he can bring a smile back to a sad prince mourning the loss of his mother. With his daughter’s help, he has thirty days to complete his mission.
Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Casting: Takaaki Nomi, Sea Kumada, Jun Kunimura
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: French, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Release date: 09/05/2012
The DVD set contains three masterpieces by Hitoshi Matsumoto: Saya Zamurai, Symbol and Big man Japan.
In Symbol, A man wakes up and mysteriously finds himself trapped in an empty, white rectangular room, wearing clownish bright yellow polka dot pajamas. Where is he? Who did this to him? How did he end up here? Will he manage to make him escape to safety?
In Big Man Japan, Matsumoto portrays the descendant of an illustrious Japanese family, a fallen and pathetic hero who leads an ordinary and lonely life but who must now protect Japan from the giant monsters who assail it.
Locarno IFF 2011 - Piazza Grande, Busan IFF 2011, Deauville Asian IFF 2012, Sarajevo IFF 2012
« A film of saber without saber (or almost), doubled by a comedy which turns to drama with an epilogue as unexpected as moving. » - 20 Minutes
« SAYA ZAMURAI, behind the apparent frivolity of its words, constitutes a deeper reflection, perhaps, on the show itself. A bizarre marriage of a Zen tale with a film by Laurel and Hardy. » - Le Monde