Starring: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Koyoki, Billy Connolly

One critic remarked after seeing this epic "Eastern" that the movie could have been called "Dances With Swords" because it has so many similarities to the multi-award-winning Western, "Dances With Wolves".

Indeed, the storylines of the two movies have many parallels and the period in which they are set is also the same. In the US, it is the era of the Civil War, of westward expansion and the annihilation of the Indians of the Great Plains. In Japan it is the time of the forced opening to the West, the overthrow of the Shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor and the imperial court to full political power.

It is also the time of the annihilation of the Samurai as a warrior caste. However, the screenplay doesn't quite explain, let alone resolve, the contradictions that arise on both sides following the political decision by Mutsuhito, the Meiji Emperor, and his advisers to suppress the Samurai.

The director, Edward Zwick ("Glory"), isn't worried about this. He says that when he came to make the movie, he could feel the influence of the great Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa and the battle scenes are certainly reminiscent of "Kagemusha". However, when Zwick goes on to say that "it's as important to celebrate what's poetic and idealized as it is to understand the reality" maybe he's forgetting that Kurosawa was influenced by John Ford. And Ford expressed Zwick's words more succinctly: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

What Zwick means is that he is not interested in the complicated background to the Samurai Rebellion of 1877, led by the Samurai aristocrat, Saigo Takamori. Zwick wants to show the "legend", not the "fact". He wants to celebrate the power of the Samurai myth and why Saigo is revered in Japan even today. And maybe it was simply too hard for screenwriter John Logan ("Gladiator") to explain the motives behind the revolt in the time available. After all, "Samurai Rebellion" is itself a contradiction in terms.

In the movie, Saigo for some reason is called Katsumoto and the veteran Japanese actor Ken Watanabe fills the role to perfection. His Katsumoto is the embodiment of "The Way of the Samurai" (Bushido) - loyalty, courage and, above all, honour.

Into his world crashes a Cruise missile in the form of Captain Nathan Algren, a near-alcoholic Civil War officer hired to train imperial troops to fight the Samurai. Algren, his life spared by Katsumoto after the movie's first battle, changes sides and becomes - after some intense Zen moments - a Samurai warrior himself.

When Algren first arrives in Yokohama he is accompanied by Colonel Bagley (Tony Goldwyn), whom he hates because of an Indian massacre he had once ordered, and Sergeant Gant (Billy Connolly), a friend. Algren also hates General George Armstrong Custer, killed with all his men the previous year at Little Big Horn when trying to organize another massacre of Indians. He describes Custer as "a murderer who fell in love with his own legend and his men died because of that".

It's interesting the way Custer's reputation - once honoured by Hollywood and ferociously guarded well into the 20th century by his long-lived widow - is being assailed in movies lately. Custer also came under fire in the Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers", when the NCO played by Sam Elliott says contemptuously: "Custer was a pussy!".

The trouble is that in the battle at the end of "The Last Samurai" - and we're not sure if the last Samurai is Katsumoto or Algren - the spirit of Custer seems to be riding with them on their final desperate charge. Are Katsumoto and Algren so "in love with their own legend" that all their men have to die under volleys of rifle fire, Gatling guns and howitzers?

Or maybe, as was also the message in 'We Were Soldiers", Zwick is saying that, in the end, soldiers fight for one another, not for a cause.

Barry Porter

Veronica Guerin

Director: Joel Schumacher

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Gerard McSorley, Colin, Farrell, Brenda Fricker

"Veronica Guerin" is a true story. It is an emotionally powerful movie about a courageous journalist who didn't give up when her life was threatened by drug dealers.

A journalist for Dublin's Sunday Independent, Veronica Guerin (Cate Blanchett) was shocked to see the growing drug problems on the streets of the Irish capital in the mid-1990s, affecting mostly teenagers. The criminal and drug law in Ireland had huge loopholes at that time and public awareness in fighting a drug war was low. Guerin decided to pursue her investigation and write about the big drug lords controlling the trade.

While she was making headway in her investigation, she received intimidating calls from drug boss John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley) who threatened to kill her and her son. A moment later, she was shot in the leg by a thug sent by a drug baron.

With her strong sense of social responsibility as a journalist, Guerin continued to pursue her story. She was finally gunned down in her car on June 26, 1996 and became a national heroine.

Her death evoked public indignation. Thousands took to the streets every weekend in support of the fight against the drug barons. Tougher laws were passed to punish drug dealers. Major drug barons were either arrested or fled the country, but some were repatriated.

The movie did not show Veronica Guerin as a superwoman. She loved her family, her son and husband. Her husband, while worrying very much about his wife's safety, also supported her in her brave work in those difficult days.

The power of the press has been very well demonstrated by the movie. Those drug barons did not fear the police so much. What they were afraid of was a 38-year-old woman journalist.

As a journalist, I was deeply moved by the movie. Cate Blanchett is a superb actress. She made me think she was Veronica Guerin and it was a documentary that I was watching. I have even framed the DVD cover so that Veronica Guerin would constantly give me courage and remind me of the social responsibility of a journalist. Compared with Veronica Guerin, the hardship suffered by some journalists is not worth mentioning. Xiao Chen