What if you travelled in time, but arrived in a place that looks just like your world? That's what happens to samurai Kyoichiro Kazami (Norimasa Fuke) in Jun'ichi Yasuda's A Samurai in Time, which had its European premiere at FrightFest 2024. Struck by lightning during a sword fight, Kazami is suddenly transported to the present day, on a film set where a studio happens to be shooting a samurai TV show. It takes him a while to realize he doesn't know where he is. In time, he is taken in by a generous couple who run the local shrine, and the assistant director of the TV show he crashed, Yuko Yamamoto (Yuno Sakura).

It's a moving and warmly funny story about feeling like you understand nothing and must start over completely. Kazami cries with happiness while eating cake and watching TV, experiencing sensations he previously couldn't imagine. Ordinary things, like a vacuum cleaner, are scary to him, even though he was literally fighting for his life in his previous environment. Eventually, Kazami finds his footing acting in samurai shows and films, a genre called jidaigeki, and he quickly settles into life as a stuntman. But the jidaigeki genre is losing popularity, and again Kazami is faced with feeling lost and reaching for purpose.

If you're looking for an action movie with excellent sword fights and impressive physical showmanship, this is not the film. There is some of that, but I had hoped for more in a film about a samurai. It's more of a thoughtful character study about what it means to find your place in the world, how to hold on to parts of your identity that matter to you, and how to let go of what's less important. As a bonus, it delivers an ending I did not see coming.

A Samurai In Time had its European premiere at FrightFest 2024 on Saturday, August 24.

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