‘Shogun meets Squid Game’

Last Samurai Standing

- Alison de Souza

That is how actor Junichi Okada, the lead in the Japanese period series on Netflix, describes the survival show

Actor Junichi Okada has a very particular set of skills.

Although best known in Japan as a movie star, the 45-year-old is also a martial arts whizz with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and certifications in several other disciplines.

And he put that to good use in the Japanese historical drama Last Samurai Standing, where he was not only the lead actor but also a producer and action choreographer as well as the person tasked with talking another actor into being set on fire.

Netflix’s most-watched non-English-language series globally in the third week of November, the new series is described by Okada as “Shogun meets Squid Game”. It premiered on Nov 13.

An adaptation of the 2022 historical fiction novel Ikusagami, it opens in 1878 in post-feudal Japan, a time when the once-powerful samurai warrior class — also depicted in shows such as Shogun (2024 to present) — has lost its standing.

Okada plays Shujiro Saga, one of 292 down-on-their-luck former samurai who enter a competition that promises a life-changing cash prize.