The Last Samurai

I just saw this last night (on DVD)- Tom Cruise goes from Top Gun to Shogun in "The Last Samurai". Overall, it is a spectacular and entertaining movie with outstanding acting and breathtaking cinematography. However, be aware that the movie is fictional.
Did you know that the pink cherry blossoms that Katsumoto (played by the superb Ken Watanabe) was referring to were fakes - they were made of cotton. The reason for this was because they couldn't find cherry blossoms at that time of year for the scenes that were filmed in Japan.

Fuji-yama's twin .... Mt. Taranaki, N.Z. >
Besides filming in Japan (mostly in Kyoto and at Himeji) and the States (on sets on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Los Angeles (Burbank), many scenes were also filmed on location near New Plymouth on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island, with Mt. Taranaki standing in as Japan's Fuji-yama. Take a look at the picture above and see how Mt. Taranaki closely resembles Fuji-yama!