“Three Outlaw Samurai” has a kinetic energy to it that makes it a whole lot of fun, but it’s thematically dense in ways that subvert the classic ideals that are often presented in samurai stories. There’s a subversion of the common tropes that Hideo Gosha feels at home with that Rian Johnson brought to the table with “The Last Jedi.” In most samurai movies, loyalty and obedience are what bring a samurai honor, but the samurai who gain honor in this movie are the ones who do the betraying and disobeying, turning our classic understandings of samurai on their ear so that we can see what is truly good in the world we’re privy to. Johnson does the same thing with Luke Skywalker — we think of Jedi as bold generals going off to fight, but it’s the contemplative, monastic life that is more suited to the Jedi, especially if they want to break the cycles of violence. Luke’s turn to non-violence takes our ideas of what Jedi are and transforms them into a blend of what we hope them to be and what they should be, just as Gosha does.
Gosha’s “Three Outlaw Samurai” is a tight 95 minutes long and packs a lot of character into its perfect length. Watching it will not only give you insight into one of Johnson’s influences for “The Last Jedi,” but will also make you a wiser, more informed, and worldly connoisseur of fine films and even finer “Star Wars.”