The arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry's infamous "black ships" in 1850s Japan prompted some unusual reactions from a country that had spent the past few centuries shut off from the outside world. Few were as offbeat as that of the feudal lord Itakura Katsuakira, who decided that the best way to prepare his samurai troops for the onslaught of modernization was to turn them into long-distance runners.
This quirky episode provides the basis for "Samurai Marathon," a lavish, heavily fictionalized jidaigeki (period film) brought to us by Bernard Rose, the British director of "Candyman" and "Immortal Beloved" fame. It's based on a 2014 novel by Akihiro Dobashi, also known as the screenwriter of the "Samurai Hustle" series, which should tell you how seriously the film takes its history.
It doesn't seem sure quite how seriously to take itself, though. The opening scenes, in which Perry (Danny Huston) introduces a Japanese delegation to the wonders of American technology and bourbon, strike an affected, not-quite-comedic tone that Rose sustains for the next 100 minutes. It's fun, though never particularly funny, and Philip Glass's opulent score sounds like it's being piped in from a more straight-faced historical epic.