Kazuya Ninomiya's performance is refreshing, but the most impressive one is Lieutenant General Subayashi played by Ken Watanabe. When the entire army was annihilated and there was only one person left, he asked the officer to cut off his head with a Japanese sword. At least at the last moment, he also wished he could die like a samurai. But at the moment when the officer raised the knife, he was killed by the American military gun in the distance. In the end, Su Lin could only end his life with the pistol given to him by the Americans.
It is very ironic that Watanabe Ken has also played a similar role before this, also a play directed by an American, also playing a defeated samurai. In "The Last Samurai", Watanabe had Tom cut his belly for him, splendid cherry blossoms cried and danced for him, and countless American soldiers paid tribute to him. How bleak and lowly he died in "Family Letter" by comparison.
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