Japan Synopsis
“In the face of an enemy, in the heart of one man, lies the soul of a warrior.”
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
Audience Engagement
6,297 audience reviews — more than 100% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 94th percentile among Japan films.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Last Samurai. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Warner Bros. Pictures
Drama + Action in Japan
444 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and Action genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Last Samurai itself).
The 2002–2004 Japan Window
The Last Samurai holds position #53 of 263 Japan films in the 2002–2004 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Japan, 1020 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Last Samurai premiered alongside 84 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 34m runtime, production spent $909K per minute on screen and earned $3.0M per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 84 other Japan films in 2003.
The 1554th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Last Samurai, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- mountain village · 5
- leader · 4
- sense of guilt · 2
- war veteran · 2
- insurgence · 2
- campaign · 2
- slaughter · 2
- arms deal · 1
- homeland · 1
- foreign legion · 1
- war strategy · 1
- gettysburg · 1
- u.s. soldier · 1
- soldier · 29
- katana · 20
- swordplay · 16
- emperor · 16
- alcoholic · 14
- mercenary · 13
- japanese army · 12
- war crimes · 10
- language barrier · 10
- warrior · 10
- general · 8
- self-discovery · 7
- japan · 454
- samurai · 128
- period drama · 37
- sword · 36
- loss of loved one · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,020 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (78th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.7 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #436 of 1,933 (top 23%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Japan, United States of America, New Zealand |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | English, Japanese |
| Production Companies | Warner Bros. Pictures, Bedford Falls Productions, Radar Pictures, Cruise/Wagner Productions |
| Runtime | 2h 34m |
| Release Date | December 5, 2003 |
| IMDb | tt0325710 |
| Official Site | www.warnerbros.com |