Review | Netflix drama Last Samurai Standing review: 1800s Japan gets the Squid Game treatment

4/5 stars Lead cast: Junichi Okada, Masahiro Higashide, Kaya Kiyohara, Yumia Fujisaki In Last Samurai Standing, 292 fighters from across the land assemble for a merciless showdown to the death in the late 19th century, at the dawn of Japan’s transformative Meiji period (1868-1912). Adapted from the novel by Shogo Imamura, which he also serialised as a seinen manga, Netflix’s rollicking new action series unspools like a period reinterpretation of Squid Game, as the country’s most fearsome samurai battle for a prize pot of 100 billion yen. Junichi Okada stars, produces and serves as the show’s action director, staging a deluge of breathless, innovative sword fights and skirmishes between formidable characters played by Masahiro Higashide, Shota Sometani, Kaya Kiyohara, Yumia Fujisaki and Hideaki Ito, to name just a few. Over the course of a desperate sprint from Kyoto’s Tenryu-ji temple to the Japanese capital, Tokyo, the show slowly reveals the tortured backstories and varied motivations of these marginalised warriors. They forge uneasy alliances, revive pre-existing rivalries and question who could possibly stage such a diabolical tournament – and to what end? It is 1878, and the age of the samurai is over. The incoming Meiji oligarchy has abolished Japan’s isolationist policies and opened the country up to outside influences, especially from the West. This was opposed by the traditionally revered samurai class, and the new regime is looking to wipe them out entirely. Samurai have been stripped of their status and ordered to surrender their swords to the authorities. Shujiro Saga (Okada), a revered war hero just a few years earlier, retreats into poverty and attempts to live a quiet life. When a cholera outbreak engulfs the country, claiming his young daughter and leaving his wife (Riho Yoshioka) near death, Shujiro is all out of options. He hears about the “Kodoku”, a mysterious death game that is calling for skilled combatants and promises great riches. The objective of Kodoku is to complete the perilous journey from Kyoto to Tokyo, passing through a number of checkpoints. Each contestant wears a wooden tag around their neck. If it is removed for more than 10 seconds, the player is eliminated. The toll for passing through each checkpoint is a predesignated number of these tags, meaning the only way to complete each stage is to acquire tags from other players. By the end of the journey, each player needs 30 tags, meaning fewer than 10 players can survive. The rules of this sadistic Battle Royale-style gauntlet are extolled by Ninomiya Kazunari’s sinister emcee, but the real organisers of the contest remain a mystery, even as a quartet of wealthy elites spectate and gamble on various competitors from a safe vantage point. What the players are told, with merciless exactitude, is that any attempt to desert the game, speak about it to anybody not involved or otherwise disobey the rules will be met with lethal force. Arriving on Netflix the same week Edgar Wright’s reimagining of The Running Man opens in cinemas around the world, Last Samurai Standing offers a fresh perspective on a premise that clearly has plenty of life in it. The overwhelming success of Disney’s Shogun adaptation has almost certainly played a part in motivating Netflix to stage its own ambitious samurai epic. As in Squid Game, Battle Royale, The Running Man and The Hunger Games – to name just a few previous incarnations of this concept – the contenders soon realise that relative safety can be found in numbers. They forge tenuous alliances to survive more formidable threats. That is, at least until they are forced to turn on each other. Still grieving the loss of his daughter, Shujiro quickly gravitates towards Futaba (Fujisaki), a teenager desperate to use the winnings to help her family, but who has never seen combat and is wildly out of her depth. Meanwhile, another female contestant, Iroha (Kiyohara), displays remarkable proficiency with a blade, as does smooth-talking ninja Kyojin (Higashide), who proposes they all ally. Other warriors have different agendas, such as Hideaki Ito’s hulking beast, Bukotsu, who enlists purely to feed his unquenchable bloodlust. Written and directed by Michihito Fujii (18×2 Beyond Youthful Days), Last Samurai Standing flits artfully between the various feuding factions, whether on the battlefield or scheming behind the scenes, and mostly succeeds in keeping them all distinct and the viewer invested in their motivations. The show also jumps back in time, further fleshing out the histories of these characters, exploring what drove them to compete in this seemingly suicidal contest, and revealing how many of their lives have intertwined in the past. Where the show truly shines, however, is in its expertly choreographed fight sequences. Each character has their own signature weapon or style, and each stand-off takes place in a unique and innovative setting. It all results in a wildly exhilarating roller coaster that deftly balances historical intrigue with personal heroism and an escalating body count, as it speeds towards a nail-biting cliffhanger certain to leave viewers clamouring for a second season. Last Samurai Standing will start streaming on Netflix on November 13.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Thrilling saga with Junichi Okada as a warrior in a deadly race across Japan gives a new perspective on a sadistic premise we’ve seen before

Thrilling saga with Junichi Okada as a warrior in a deadly race across Japan gives a new perspective on a sadistic premise we’ve seen before