Jez's Blog

The movie The Last Samurai was about Nathan Algren (by Tom Cruise), an American captain who had gone to many wars; and unfortunately, these memories of wars have happened to be his tragic flaw. However, one day, he was ordered to go to Japan, and so, he started his 'hero's journey'...

The setting of the story was around 1878, when the Japanese Empire was modernizing. Nathan Algren was ordered to go to Japan to teach the Japanese how to use modern weapons such as guns and cannons; and also to teach them how to fight with those weapons in a war. At the time, Nathan was alcoholic, apathetic, and had just lost his job... so basically his life was miserable, and he had lost himself. In the 1st war, He led the modernized soldiers to fight with the samurais, who refused to be modernized. And then, in the end, the samurais won the war.

After the samurais' victory of the 1st 'Modernity v.s. Tradition' war, somehow the samurai didn't kill Nathan, instead, they took him back to their village. In the village, the they took care of Nathan. They provided him a place live, provided him food, and also cure his injuries...etc. At first, Nathan didn't quite understand the culture of the samurai. In fact, he even belittled it sometime. However, as time went by, he started to love the culture of the samurai. Which I think, it's because that he found himself in this kind of honorable way of life, which everyone were tough yet respectful.

Then, after a few months, the samurais brought Nathan back to Tokyo, for him to return to his army. Also, on n the other hand, they went to Tokyo for the 'leader' of the samurais to meet the emperor of Japan. However, unfortunately either of these went well. Nathan didn't return to his army, instead, he chose to help the samurais to defeat modernization; and for the 'leader' of the samurais to visit the emperor, and talked about the conflict between modernization and the traditional, the 'leader' of the samurais turned out to become a prisoner.

While the 'leader' of the samurais was in the prison, Nathan, along with some other samurais, went to rescue him; and one tragedy that happened in this movement, was that the son of the 'leader' died. 'Father, it is my time, please let me stay,' said the son. Then, just before he died, he pulled out his swords, ran to the soldiers, and wanted to kill them with his last breath. However, he got shot to death in the end. And then after the 'leader' of the samurais was rescued, the samurais, and Nathan, returned to the village. They began to prepare for the 2nd war against the modernity.

In the 2nd war between modernity and tradition, the modernized soldiers were no longer weak as they were in the 1st war. They have learned better skills of using the weapons, and were better trained for fighting in a war; yet, the samurais stayed the same... Therefore I believe that most of the people could predict how the 2nd war ended.

Yes indeed, the samurais lost the 2nd 'Modernity v.s. Tradition' war.

However, even though the samurais lost the war, I was impressed by their spirits. They were always proud of who they were, no matter how much things have changed, due to the modernizing. In the end of the movie, the 'leader' of the samurais asked Nathan to kill him. He told him that he was honored to die in a war. And then, when he died, all the soldiers bowed to the 'leader' of the samurais. In which, I believe it was because that they were touched by the spirit, and loyalty of the samurais, to their tradition... and most importantly, like I'd mentioned that they were always proud of who they are.

Newton's laws of motions, and frictions, are everywhere in our daily life. Let me give you an example:

Last Friday was HIS' field trip to Leofoo Village amusement park. Let's pick on Newton's 1st law of motions, 'an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force,' as an example: The first ride that Grace, my partner, and I went on was 'Volcano Adventure' (if u translate it from Chinese into English). How did Newton's 1st law of motions apply on the ride? Well it might be hart to see because everything was in controled by machines. However, the most obvious observation was that in the end of the ride, Grace leant foreward when the boat stopped; and the reason why was because that while the boat was stopped by the machine, there was no other force to stop Grace and mine motions of moving foreward.

Further, the ride on 'Volcano Adventure' was also an example for both kinetic friction, and static friction. When the static energy was greater than the kinetic energy, the speed of the boat slowed down. Which was what happened when the boat was stopping in the end of the ride. I think the machine had somehow increased the static friction between the track and the bottom of the boat, and then caused it to stop eventually. Also, in addition, I wonder if when the boat was sliding down from the ramps, its kinetic friction increases because when it slid down from the ramps, its speed increased. However, again, it's hard to prove this point from this case because everything was in controled by mashines. Hwo knows if they also controled the speed of the boats or not?

P.S. LeoFoo Village was FUNNN!! :D