12A
2hrs 11mins

When an Edo-era samurai travels through time to the 21st century, he puts his sword skills to good use – as an extra on a period drama TV set.

Unfortunately no Audio Description track is available for this feature.
Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025
Yasuda Junichi
12A
Comedy
moderate violence, bloody images, language, brief sexual threat
Japanese
Contains Foreign Language Subtitles

As the Edo period wanes in the mid-19th century, samurai KOSAKA Shinzaemon (YAMAGUCHI Makiya) draws his blade against his rival on the streets of Kyoto. But as the fight begins, sudden lightning strikes… and when Shinzaemon awakens, something is different. He’s been sent forward through time onto the set of a 21st-century period drama!

He is lost, afraid and alone in a familiar-yet-unfamiliar world, but assistant director Yuko (SAKURA Yuno) soon finds something for him to do: his skill with the sword makes him a perfect candidate for an extra in their TV show. So Shinzaemon begins a new life as a kirareyaku, an actor specialising in pretending to die in battle, and slowly finds his way forward in his strange new reality.

A Samurai in Time is a smart, crowd-pleasing comedy centring around a man with a great sense of obligation, and more: behind the laughs, it expertly blends thoughtful character study, sharp cultural observations and a heartfelt tribute to the declining jidaigeki (period drama) industry.

A Samurai in Time – ©MIRAIEIGASHA

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Mon 31 Mar