Japan Synopsis
たそがれ清兵衛
Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Twilight Samurai. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Shochiku
Drama + Romance in Japan
270 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and Romance genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Twilight Samurai itself).
The 2001–2003 Japan Window
The Twilight Samurai holds position #44 of 247 Japan films in the 2001–2003 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 Twilight Samurai premiered alongside 81 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 9m runtime, production spent $39K per minute on screen and earned $57K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 81 other Japan films in 2002.
The 1470th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
273 audience reviews — more than 89% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (89th percentile) outruns trending popularity (74th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Twilight Samurai, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- mission of murder · 3
- factual · 2
- earnest · 1
- sincere · 1
- historical · 28
- teacher · 26
- feudal japan · 26
- daughter · 17
- honor · 10
- bushi · 9
- widower · 6
- based on novel or book · 288
- samurai · 128
- jidaigeki · 61
- sword fight · 56
- period drama · 37
- sword · 36
- 19th century · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #895 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (80th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.8 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #373 of 1,933 (top 19%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Shochiku, Sumitomo Corporation, Hakuhodo, Nippan Group Holdings, Eisei Gekijo |
| Runtime | 2h 9m |
| Release Date | November 2, 2002 |
| IMDb | tt0351817 |