[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twilight_samurai.jpg]]

''The Twilight Samurai'' (or ''Tasogare Seibei'', literally "Twilight Seibei") is a 2002 Japanese film written and directed by Creator/YojiYamada. It is the first film in Yamada's acclaimed ''Samurai Trilogy'', along with ''Film/TheHiddenBlade'' and ''Film/LoveAndHonor'', all based on the stories of Creator/ShuheiFujisawa.

The story takes place in the mid-19th century, a few years before the Meiji Restoration, in a time of [[DawnOfAnEra rapid change throughout Japan]]. [[NiceGuy Iguchi Seibei]] is a humble, low-ranking samurai and widower who must work several jobs to support his family after selling his sword and bankrupting himself to pay for his wife's lavish funeral. In this day and age, samurai have been reduced to petty bureaucrats and pencil-pushers. Seibei spends his days keeping track of the castle's dried cod. [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer His colleagues]] nickname him "Twilight Seibei" for his habit of rushing home at the end of his shift rather than staying out with them to enjoy sake and geisha. At home, Seibei tills his own fields and assembles birdcages well into the night to support his two children.

After Seibei gets castigated by the clan's lord for his dishevelled appearance, his wealthier uncle decides to arrange a marriage for Seibei to ease his domestic burdens. Seibe refuses to marry just to receive a servant, and instead prefers to marry a woman who will share his love for his daughters. When Seibei's old friend Iinuma Michinojo pays a visit from Edo, he learns that Iinuma's sister Tomoe, another childhood friend, has recently divorced her alcoholic husband [[TheAlcoholic Koda]] and now lives in shame. Seibei and Tomoe respark their old friendship, but their courtship is [[CourtlyLove chaste]]. When a drunken Koda emerges and challenges Iinuma to a duel for the return of his estranged wife, Seibei steps in and accepts the challenge on Iinuma's behalf.

It turns out that Seibei was once an instructor at a prestigious fencing school, and is quite a swordsman. He defeats Koda easily using only a wooden stick, leaving the man alive. When the clan elders hear of Seibei's skill, they quickly summon him to perform a task. Humble Seibei is reluctant to enter the dangerous world of clan politics, but he has no choice. The elders charge him with executing Yogo Zen'emon, a powerful warrior who has refused an imperial order to commit seppuku. Seibei meets with Yogo Zen'emon, and the two share a heartfelt conversation about having lost their families. However, when Seibei reveals that he does not own a sword, and intended on fighting Yogo with his wakizashi, Yogo is enraged and attacks him. Seibei defeats the warrior and returns home alive. He reunites with Tomoe and the two are married.

The film is narrated by Seibei's younger daughter Ito, her own old age drawing near, in what is presumably the Taishō period.

At the 76th UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, ''The Twilight Samurai'' was nominated for (but [[AwardSnub lost]]) the award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won an unprecedented twelve Japanese Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.

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!!This movie provides examples of:

* TheAce: Yogo Zen'emon is a pleasant, affable MasterSwordsman. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, we later learn that he's something closer to a BrokenAce]].
* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: {{Inverted|Trope}}: a samurai film [[{{Deconstruction}} dominated by quiet scenes]] but [[StealthPun punctuated]] with the odd gritty action scene that serves mostly to heighten the intensity of those quiet scenes.
* ActualPacifist: Seibei would like to be one, but his status (and skill) as a samurai makes this increasingly difficult.
* TheAlcoholic:
** Tomoe's ex-husband Koda is a brutish, abusive man who likes alcohol a little too much.
** There is also [[spoiler:Yogo Zen'emon, due to the loss of his family]].
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Seibei spends all his time after his working hours managing his house and caring for his daughters. He's often mocked by his colleagues, who drink and eat amongst themselves instead. He gets a bit more respect once they realize he MinoredInAsskicking.
* AlphaBitch:
** Arguably Iinuma's wife, at least at times. Not so much how she ''is'' as how we get to ''see'' her...namely, meddling.
** Possibly Seibei's late wife. Difficult to know, since we never see her alive and different people project different things on her.
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: The typically submissive and withdrawn Seibei jumps into action to keep Tomoe safe against her ex-husband.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Koda and Yogo Zen'emon are skilled in the use of katanas, but Seibei manages to outfight both of them.
* AmbiguouslyGay: One of Seibei's coworkers.
* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Seibei gives a particularly heartbreaking one to Tomoe before he heads off to face [[spoiler:Yogo]].
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Ito, Seibei's younger daughter, loves to make trouble for his elder daughter Kayano.
* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: Yogo Zen'emon]] isn't remotely evil, just grief-stricken over [[spoiler: his family's death]] and none too keen on the idea of [[spoiler:seppuku]]. Seibei even offers to let him escape rather than fight.
* ArrangedMarriage: This was virtually a given in that time and place and social stratum, but Iinuma feels guilty over his sister Tomoe having to endure Koda.
* TheAtoner: Seibei feels he ruined his late wife's life, and possibly even brought about her death. That's one of the reasons he [[spoiler: bankrupts himself and sells his family sword to pay for her lavish funeral]].
** Iinuma, toward his younger sister Tomoe, for marrying her off to a powerful samurai who turned out to be a brutal drunk.
* BadassBookworm: Seibei is basically an accountant, but he is revealed to be the clan's best swordsman when he defeats the katana-wielding Koda with nothing but a bokken. Alas, to everyone's consternation, he'd prefer ''not'' to be a badass.
* BadassPacifist: Seibei is a MasterSwordsman, but he has no enthusiasm towards fighting.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Seibei is a quiet and respectful man, but he is an unmatched swordsman who can take down anyone he needs.
* BittersweetEnding: Ito reveals that [[spoiler:after all he'd gone through for his happy ending, Seibei was killed only three years later in battle during the Boshin War. However, Ito insists that her father died a happy man]].
* BornInTheWrongCentury: A recurring theme. Because the [[DawnOfAnEra times are changing]] so [[EndOfAnAge quickly]], there's a tremendous feeling of being out of place, although the more thoughtful characters are generally torn between feeling they were born too late and born too early.
* BrattyHalfPint: Ito, Seibei's younger daughter, at times.
* BrokenAce: [[spoiler: Zen'emon.]] For all his outward skill and confidence, he's ultimately a sad, broken man mourning [[spoiler:his dead wife and child]].
* CannotSpitItOut: Seibei can't bring himself to explain how he feels about Tomoe, even when Iinuma gives him an ultimatum.
** Tomoe herself is an unusual example, or perhaps a subversion: [[spoiler: she'd probably confess her feelings to Seibei immediately if that were a socially permissible thing for a woman to do in that time period.]]
* ChasteHero: Seibei. He avoids the {{geisha}}s his coworkers hang out with, and he refuses to consider remarrying. [[spoiler: Or at least he puts on a brave face until he's confronted with the likelihood of his own proximate death -- and simultaneously presented with his chance to redeem his family from financial ruin. Then he wastes no time proposing to Tomoe in an anguishing AnguishedDeclarationOfLove]].
* ChekhovsGun: Notice the small look [[spoiler: Zen'emon gives the doorframe]] before the duel. Also the fact that Seibei is very good at [[spoiler: using a ''short'' sword]].
* CherryTapping: Seibei humbles Koda in their duel by beating him with a wooden sword against his foe's steel katana.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Tomoe and Seibei used to share a PuppyLove.
* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: Not stated outright, but hinted at. At any rate, from his childhood, Seibei dreamed of marrying Tomoe, and somehow [[TragicDream that dream didn't truly die even after they each got married to other people]].
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Yes, with some reservations. They're WiseBeyondTheirYears, and they've had more than their fair share of [[TheWoobie suffering]], but they're ''morally'' innocent.
-->"We knew somehow, in our naive child hearts, something had happened between [[spoiler: Father and Tomoe]], but we could not bring ourselves to ask it."
* CloserToEarth:
** How Seibei views his late wife but she's arguably a subversion, if we're to go by Tomoe.
** An even more straightforward example would be [[TheDitz Iinuma]] and his wife.
* ContemplateOurNavels: When Seibei meets Yogo Zen'emon [[spoiler: in Yogo's house, before their final duel. Seibei is just there to do his job, and his job happens to be to kill Yogo. Yogo wants ''answers'' before he dies. But whether there ''are'' answers to his questions -- aside from trite ones along the lines of "well, life isn't fair" -- is open to debate]].
* CoolBigSis: Kayano toward Ito. On a more figurative level, Tomoe toward both Kayano and Ito -- although she is perhaps more literally a [[DotingParent doting substitute parent]].
* CrapsackWorld / WorldHalfEmpty: At least according to Yogo Zen'emon. (Not that he doesn't have good reason.)
* [[BlueBlood Daimyo]]: Two of them. Early in the film, Seibei embarrasses himself in front of the really nice young daimyo running his clan. Later, after the young man dies and an internal rift nearly tears apart the clan, he's summoned to meet the much more vicious successor.
** Although Seibei was lucky enough to get away with a (mild) reprimand. His superior points out that if it had been the daimyo's father, he would have probably been forced to commit seppuku.
* DamselInDistress: Tomoe.
* DawnOfAnEra: The times they are a-changin'.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of samurai movies. In particular, ''The Twilight Samurai'' attempts to debunk a lot of mythologizing and shows samurai as regular people with regular problems, just trying to go about their lives in a gritty and difficult world, rather than as superheroes ever eager for the next glorious battle or duel.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: A little. It ''is'' a different time, after all.
* TheDitz: Iinuma isn't stupid. He just acts like it. Sometimes.
** One of Seibei's servants is illiterate, slow, forgetful, and quite possibly mildly retarded. He's also earnest, sweet, hard-working, and kind of adorable. May be more an example of TheFool.
* DoggedNiceGuy: [[spoiler: Tomoe.]]
* DotingParent: Seibei. Which makes him a freak as far as everyone else is concerned. Everyone, that is, until his unlucky {{childhood friend|Romance}} Tomoe makes her [[SheIsAllGrownUp return]].
** Tomoe is a doting ''substitute'' parent -- crossed with a CoolBigSis. [[spoiler: By the end of the film, we learn from the narrator, she has also been a doting stepparent.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Subverted with Yogo Zen'emon, who refuses to commit {{seppuku}} when the clan orders him to.]]
** [[spoiler: Played straight with most of the other samurai and noblemen ordered to commit {{seppuku}}.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Whatever happiness Seibei gets, he certainly earns it.
* EndOfAnAge: The time for samurai is over. Almost everyone seems to realize this. Seibei seems to think he'll become a farmer.
* EveryJapaneseSwordIsAKatana: Averted.
* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: Except that these samurai are generally more like accountants.
* ExtremeDoormat: Cleverly {{subverted|Trope}} with Tomoe. She can be [[PluckyGirl tough as nails when she has to be]], and in some ways she's the most recognizably "modern" major character in the whole movie.
* FaceFramedInShadow: Yogo Zen'emon, all the time. The only time when he appears in a sunlight he's only visible from the back.
* FailureKnight - Yogo Zen'emon, who is [[spoiler:disowned by his new lord and mourning the deaths of his family]].
* FirstNameBasis: Inverted when Tomoe tells her ex-husband Captain Koda he's no longer on a FirstNameBasis with her.
* {{Foil}}: Seibei has several, each reflecting different aspects of him. A few include:
** Tomoe.
** Iinuma.
** [[spoiler: Yogo Zen'emon.]]
* TheFool: See TheDitz. above.
* {{Geisha}}: Seibei's coworkers hang out with them. (ChasteHero Seibei does not.)
* GenkiGirl: Tomoe was almost definitely a GenkiGirl as a child and probably into her teen years. Even now, her character retains genki aspects, although she's sadder and much wiser now.
* GrowingUpSucks: Tomoe embarrasses Seibei by telling his daughters that GrowingUpSucks, especially if you're a girl -- and ''especially'' if you're a {{tomboy}} in an era that expects you to be ladylike. (Nevertheless, Tomoe turned out okay.)
* TheHero: Seibei is the protagonist.
* HeroesGoneFishing: Seibei and Iinuma enjoy fishing together halfway through the film.
* HiddenDepths: The point of the title, and a recurring theme throughout the movie.
* HonorBeforeReason: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with in various ways.]]
* HopeSpot: Implied [[spoiler: in the seconds between when we learn Seibei married Tomoe and when we learn he died soon after in the BoshinWar.]]
** [[spoiler: In the final dual, Yogo Zen'emon has]] a more standard one.
* [[InstantDeathBullet Instant Death Sword]]: According to WordOfGod, it was intended as a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion.
* {{Jerkass}}: The most straightforward example is Tomoe's ex-husband, Captain Koda.
* JerkJock: Captain Koda. Or at least the samurai equivalent. See {{Jerkass}}, above.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Yogo Zen'emon.
* JidaiGeki: Set during the Edo Period
* JustFriends: Seibei, toward Tomoe. See ObliviousToLove, below.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: {{Subverted|Trope}}. Seibei has sold his katana and must use a stick and a wakizashi to defeat two katana-wielding opponents.
* TheLancer: Iinuma, Seibei's best friend.
* LonersAreFreaks: How Seibei's coworkers view him; in fact, that's what the movie's title refers to. Subverted: Seibei is very grounded; he just [[DotingParent values time with his children]] over time with his coworkers and the possibility of advancement.
* LoveHurts: Especially when those you love have a nasty habit of dying.
* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Admittedly, Tomoe but she's an older and wiser ManicPixieDreamGirl.
* MartialPacifist: Seibei. Or at least, Seibei as a young man, before he settled down, got married, had kids.
* MinoredInAsskicking: Seibei is a bookkeeper and a master of the shortsword on the side.
* MissingMom: In the opening seconds of the film, Seibei's daughters, Kayano and Ito, lose their mother to tuberculosis. Actually, because she had been so sick and so infectious, in a way they had already lost her three years earlier.
* MyGreatestFailure: See TheAtoner.
* MySisterIsOffLimits: One of Seibei's concerns, regarding Tomoe, who is the younger sister of his best friend Iinuma.
** A SubvertedTrope in that Iinuma himself would love to see them together. (See also TheAtoner.)
* {{Narrator}}: Ito, Seibei's younger daughter, presumably from at least half a century after the main events of the film.
** Also, Yogo Zen'emon's regarding [[spoiler: his late wife and daughter]].
* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight: Implied. Seibei is an expert swordsman but swords are pointless when the Meiji army has rifles.
* NiceGuy: Seibei.
** Also Iinuma.
** Tomoe, even though she is not a guy.
* NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont: One that doesn't involve firearms; when [[spoiler: Zen'emon gets his katana stuck]].
* ObliviousToLove: Seibei, toward Tomoe. An unusual case, in that it's ''not'' a question of his failing to pay attention. Rather, he's TheStoic, and he doesn't believe he's worthy of Tomoe's love. So it's easier for him to pretend that he and Tomoe are JustFriends rather than reopen himself to another of his {{Tragic Dream}}s.
* {{Ojou}}: Iinuma's wife.
** Possibly Tomoe.
** Seibei's late wife.
** If you listen to the dialogue, both Seibei's daughters are addressed as the {{Ojou}} because they are of the Samurai class. In practice though, they are just ordinary little girls.
* OldMaid: An AvertedTrope. Presumably Tomoe must be at least in her mid-to-late twenties by the time the film opens, since she seems to have gotten married not that long after Seibei, and Seibei's older daughter Kayano is about ten, meaning Tomoe was presumably married for eleven years or more. And Tomoe has another strike against her: she's a "returned bride" (i.e., divorced). Nevertheless, Tomoe's brother Iinuma is fighting off suitors left and right. Or at least, he fends them off [[TheAtoner until he offers Seibei a chance]]. ([[CannotSpitItOut Seibei]] [[SheIsNotMyGirlFriend blows]] [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten it.]])
* PeriodPiece
* PerpetualPoverty: Not truly poverty (not for Seibei, at least, although upstream the peasants have been literally starving after a disastrous crop failure). Seibe's family has food, servants, a home, a yard, animals. But they're forever broke, and deep in debt, and Seibei seems to work so much one wonders when (or if) he sleeps.
* ThePhilosopher: Seibei is more of the quiet, contemplative variety.
** To some extent, Tomoe.
** Yogo Zen'emon.
* PluckyComicRelief: Seibei's friend Iinuma.
** Seibei's daughters, Kayano and Ito.
** Also his servants, although they tend to vanish into the background on first viewing.
** And his boss.
* PluckyGirl: Tomoe.
* PointyHairedBoss: Played with. Ultimately, his ''immediate'' superior in the clan turns out to be a decent guy.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: A lot of the characters seem way ahead of their time with regards to feminism, classism, and so on. Tomoe most of all.
* PuppyLove: In-universe; it's not seen onscreen, but this is how [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Tomoe speaks of her childhood friendship with Seibei]]. (This scene doubles as present-day ShipTease, as Tomoe embarrasses Seibei in front of his daughters but in doing so begins to draw him out of his shell.)
* RelationshipUpgrade: Several, between Seibei and Tomoe, each of them hard-earned and at least a little bittersweet. [[spoiler: The most crucial of them comes right at the end, off-screen, when Seibei and Tomoe finally become man and wife. [[YankTheDogsChain Then, mere seconds later, we have the rug pulled out from under us when we learn Seibei died only two years later in the Boshin War.]]]]
* ReluctantWarrior: Seibei doesn't really like fighting, and has to be bullied into duelling [[spoiler:Yogo]].
* RescueRomance: {{S|trawFeminist}}ome might see this dynamic at play. More likely exploited, in that [[spoiler: Tomoe already loved Seibei, and his defense of her honor merely gave her the pretext she needed to take a role in his, and his family's, life. A role, not coincidentally, fairly similar to that expected of a good HouseWife of the time -- of course, minus the sexual component]].
* {{Ronin}}: None seen onscreen, but Iinuma complains about their rude and violent behavior in Edo. Part of the theme of how the times are changing; no one really needs samurai anymore.
** [[spoiler: Zen'emon]] confess that he was one of these for a time. His failure shames him to this day, but not for the [[MyMasterRightOrWrong typical]] [[SubvertedTrope reasons]].
* {{Samurai}}: Except for a few servants, peasants, villagers, and nobleman -- none of them major characters -- all the males in the film are samurai but the vast majority of them are bureaucrats more than soldiers.
* SceneryPorn
* SelectiveObliviousness: Seibei. See ObliviousToLove, above.
* {{Seppuku}} - Discussed on occasion. Some occurs, but way offscreen, to characters we know nothing about. See also HonorBeforeReason and DrivenToSuicide.
** {{Subverted|Trope}} with [[spoiler: Yogo Zen'emon, when the new daimyo of his clan orders him to commit {{seppuku}}, but Yogo refuses on the grounds that he was just following the orders of his master]].
* [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend She Is Not Going to Be My Wife]]: Played for humor at first but then more and more for [[TearJerker pathos]].
* ShipTease: Between Seibei and Tomoe.
* ShrinkingViolet: [[TheHero Seibei]] is no coward, but he has difficulty opening up.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Tomoe, toward Seibei. Except Seibei sees himself as unworthy.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism - Ito's [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic, and deeply loving, narration]] helps prevent the film from bogging down too heavily in cynicism.
* TheSmartGuy: Seibei.
** Yogo Zen'emon.
** Tomoe
* TheStoic: Seibei.
** Tomoe.
** Yogo Zen'emon [[spoiler: tries ''so'' hard to be one, but, in the end, fails. Then again, there's only so much suffering ''anyone'' can take.]]
* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: {{Subverted|Trope}} during the final duel.]]
* TitleDrop: Early in the film, {{narrator}} Ito mentions that the colleagues of her father, Seibei, derisively nickname him "Tasogare Seibei," which is "Twilight" appended to his name (Seibei). ("Tasogare Seibei" is also the Japanese title of the film.) The nickname pops up in the dialogue occasionally, although evidently it dies out after a panicked discussion among Seibei's coworkers when word gets out that Seibei [[spoiler: defeated Captain Koda in a duel -- using just a polished stick against Koda's katana.]]
* {{Tomboy}}: Tomoe, when she was a child. She indicates this in the scene where she teases Seibei (and also, subtly, [[ShipTease flirts with him]]) by telling his daughters Kayano and Ito right in front of him how awful it is to be a girl, and how sad she was when she reached Kayano's age and had to give up climbing trees and playing with boys and exchange it for being [[ProperLady ladylike]] and learning to sew UsefulNotes/{{kimono}}. In spite of her faintly mocking tone, she's clearly serious.
* TragicDream: Seibei is filled with them. Some of them [[spoiler: come true, but never in the manner he had hoped]]. See also YankTheDogsChain, below.
** The same is true for Tomoe.
* TryNotToDie: A [[TearJerker non-flippant]] version when Tomoe is almost too choked up to bid farewell to [[spoiler: Seibei as he leaves for his final duel against Yogo Zen'emon.]] Possibly just a rare example played for drama rather than laughs.
* TwoTeacherSchool: ''One''-teacher school, in fact. {{Justified|Trope}} in that it's a village schoolhouse with barely a dozen students.
* ValuesDissonance: In-universe example, between the old ways and the new ways.
* WarriorPoet: Seibei. Except he'd [[ReluctantWarrior really rather not be a warrior]]-anything.
* WideEyedIdealist: Iinuma does his best to keep his spirits up despite the bleakness around him.
** Also, the adult Ito, in her role as the film's narrator. See also SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism, above.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Seibei's daughters Kayano and Ito. Played up by the narration, which is by Ito looking back from the vantage of a middle-aged or elderly lady. Although Kayano is about ten and Ito is about five, they're aware of, worried about, and even occasionally engaged in, the serious problems facing their family.
* WoodenKatanasAreEvenBetter: {{Subverted|Trope}} when [[spoiler: Yogo Zen'emon learns Seibei's katana is made of wood and decides Seibei is not taking him seriously. You should always take Yogo Zen'emon seriously. Always]].
** [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] earlier in the film, when Seibei uses a polished stick instead of a katana in his duel with Koda. Possibly a ''triple'' subversion considering how things end up.
* YamatoNadeshiko: Discussed by Tomoe with Seibei's daughters: women are supposed to be lady-like and sew and are not supposed to climb trees. This does not mean 'doormat' as Tomoe herself left a bad husband rather than stay there and exploits his return to net herself a better one.
* YankTheDogsChain:
** Several [[spoiler: including the ending itself]].
** This is also the entire life of [[spoiler: Yogo Zen'emon]].

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