# A question about The Last Samurai (slight spoiler)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 15, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749 "2007-08-15T23:05:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749/1 "2007-08-15T23:05:02Z")
obligatory mouse-over space for slight spoiler…
OK, in The Last Samurai, right after Tom Cruise gets captured, Katsumoto (sp?) says “This is my son’s village… yadda yadda… There is no escape.” The other guy, with a quiver of arrows on his back, says something.
What does he say? My BF thinks he says “Jolly good.” There is no subtitle, the previous words had been spoken in English, so it would follow that this is also English. Is it? Is it jolly good? Or is there a Japanese expression that just sounds like jolly good?
I really don’t know or care, but the BF and his friend have argued over it.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2007, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749/2 "2007-08-15T23:39:23Z")
IMDB quotes seems to think so:
> **[The Last Samurai (2003) - Quotes - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325710/quotes/)**
>
> The Last Samurai: Directed by Edward Zwick. With Ken Watanabe, Tom Cruise, William Atherton, Chad Lindberg. An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle.
Katsumoto: This is my son’s village. We are deep in the mountains, and the winter is coming. You cannot escape.
Nobutada: Jolly Good.
And possible reference? : [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4HVjlCFTkc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4HVjlCFTkc)
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749/3 "2007-08-16T00:18:18Z")
Is Nobutada on Cruise’s side? If I recall, their western drill sergeant was a Brit.
So in his final words he chose an expression he always heard his sergeant use as a stoic joke?
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749/4 "2007-08-16T00:21:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> quiver of arrows on his back
Whoops, I read that as “ **in** his back”. So Nobutada was one of Katsumoto’s men.
In that case, I think he was just tweaking the prisoner’s nose by using an English expression.
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### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749/5 "2007-08-16T00:31:11Z")
[QUOTE=RedRosesForMe]
What does he say? My BF thinks he says “Jolly good.” There is no subtitle, the previous words had been spoken in English, so it would follow that this is also English. Is it? Is it jolly good? Or is there a Japanese expression that just sounds like jolly good?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, he says “Jolly Good.”
It’s mentioned that Nobutada has been taught by English Missionaries, so this is (presumably) a phrase he has picked up from them and now has a somewhat ironic opportunity to use.
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### Author:  [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2007, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-last-samurai-slight-spoiler/415749/6 "2007-08-16T10:48:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The other guy, with a quiver of arrows on his back, says something.
The “other guy” is Nobutada - the son whose village it is.
> [@](#):
>
> It’s mentioned that Nobutada has been taught by English Missionaries, so this is (presumably) a phrase he has picked up from them and now has a somewhat ironic opportunity to use.
Yeah - phrase picked up during those lessons and i’ve a feeling that he doesn’t _quite_ understand how to use it - hence any irony is unintentional.
He says it again towards the end of the movie as well (if i remember correctly) when he gets his hair chopped by the soldiers in the street.