Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 or region free DVD player in order to play Japanese historical drama directed by Yojiro Takita Two men Saito (Koichi Sato) & Ono (Takehiro Murata) meet by chance in a doctor&s surgery in 1899 & discover that they both have past connections with the same man Kanichiro Yoshimutra (Kiichi Nakai) a skilled samurai who was forced to leave his wife & children behind during a famine in order to earn some money by joining the well-known samurai faction Shinsen-gumi Misunderstood & assumed by many to be a greedy mercenary Yoshimura&s path through Japan&s turbulent struggles to banish feudalism & his own conflicting motivations is both tortuous & complex The film won several Japanese Academy Awards in 2003 including Best Actor Best Supporting Actor & Best Picture