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Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Very dry dead pan comedy has a deeply moving sting in it's tale. The plot of the film has a sad sack samurai trying to make a prince laugh. He has 30 days and 30 attempts to do it or else he will have to commit suicide. What looks like a one note film flips in the final minutes to be revealed to be about something else entirely The whys and wherefores are of what is going on is not what you think at the start.Like the directors earlier film SYMBOL (and his other films as well) this film requires that the audience member be patient and wait for the whole film to unfold. If you get bored or give up the pay off will be lost. The fact that the directors films are not easy to explain I think keeps people away.On the other hand if you are willing to work with the film and wait for the pay off I think you'll be greatly rewarded. I was moved to tears.A truly great film.

A samurai gives up his sword and deserts his clan, a crime for which he is sentenced to an unusual punishment - make the morose kid of the local Lord smile in 30 days, or commit ritual suicide.This is a film in three parts; the tonally opaque opening 20 minutes, the mid-section which is a series of comic skits as the hapless samurai (Takaaki Nomi) plugs vainly away at his task, and a final section that turns the genre slightly on its head.The grubby, goggle-eyed Nomi is a far cry from the usual chanbara samurai. The visual predominance is kept throughout as Nomi says hardly a word in his downward spiral of diminishing dignity. Quite how he will regain that dignity is the journey of this protagonist. Sea Kumada, as his unforgiving daughter, gives a formidable performance as Tae, who excoriates her father for his failures, before rallying to his cause as he ganbarus through his thankless task. Hers will prove the most redeeming journey of all.As you expect from Matsumoto, who is never afraid to take chances, some of the comedy works better than others. The timing is perfect and the elaborate set ups leading to brief execution and abrupt cuts away are stock of TV skit comedy here, but the transfer to the big screen works well. Three assassins brought in for, ahem, comic relief are rather flat and strained. The ending is less maudlin than it could have been, thanks to the astute reactions of Kumada.The film is good fun with genuine laugh-out-loud moments. It has more heart than you'd expect, though the ending doesn't quite reach the heights it sets itself. It displays all the marks of Matsumoto, and fans of the Downtown star will not be disappointed.

are we standing on the same planet, dude? are you sure that the western sense of humor is the same as that of the Japanese? for years i have been watching lot of clueless moronic films made in hong kong, china, Hollywood or even from europe, but this Japanese film is definitely on top of such list. yeah, maybe there's something inexplainable Japanese humor that this film's screenplay writer had tried to deliver, or those Japanese producers suddenly pulled their heads out of the sand and started reading stupid comic books drawn by those Otaku宅男 or ハウス宅女 who all lived in their iron-clad Ivory towers, dreamed up weird and illogic scenarios, plots, storyline to fool themselves and entertain those brain-dead generation. so they think this screenplay of 'Scabbard Samurai' was a rare find and god send. on the other hand, the production of this film was quite serious, serious about the settings, the scenes, the props, costumes, the casting job....almost all stuff involved in a serious production were well prepared. the film came out very smoothly and very easy to watch but, WTF?! it's absolutely stupid and worthless! don't tell me how great this film is, how you saw it and grasped the whole nine yards of the meaning of this film, how you consider it's the milestone that the Japanese movie industries finally primed itself from puberty to maturity. NO! because there's nothing in it but absurdity and childishness. it's just like a worthless Japanese 3rd level comic book, mixed up with super nature, traditional Japanese samurai genre, ghost story, parenthood, merciless tyranny....whatever you might dream up, it's in the movie, the only thing they didn't throw in was 'child abuse', dude.this comic samurai kept running, three mysterious assassins tried to kill him without probable causes, cut him from the back (the blood ejected like oil well in Texas), shot him at the head from behind (the blood exploded like fireworks on 4th of july!), snapped and broke his neck from behind. yeah, just like general MacArthur said: "old soldier never die but faded away...." this ugly comedian samurai never died, but later, mysteriously died by his seppuku. in order to let people believe this samurai legend really lived and exited in Japanese history, the director decided to post a tombstone with his name on it which is still on the street corner of wherever you think it is.what a waste of money and time on both sides, the production team and we, the viewers. don't try to fool me and others that you, only you understood what's going on to prove how intelligent and how deep you are. you should know that when you look down upon the garbage littered around your feet, or dogs' crap, you know it's garbage, and you know it's so stink that you should not step on it. oh, what a waste.

Sayazamurai (Scabbard Samurai) was a total, pleasant surprise. It takes a while to get into the story, but those minutes of wondering "where is this movie going" are well worth it. Matsumoto (one half of the popular Downtown duo) establishes himself as a sensitive, intelligent writer/director. Fine performances all around, endearing characters, good direction, excellent production values (the story is set in the Edo era). Somewhat zany -- what else would you expect from Matsumoto? This movie really is a wonderful gem, combining laughs and some sadness. Its message of courage and love is gently conveyed. Overall, a real find for Japanese movie amateurs, a nice departure from more conventional "jidaigeki" period pieces. I definitely recommend.