No-sword (blogging from Japan) has a review of The Last Samurai that exactly confirms the bad premonitions I had about that movie:

if you believe that Asia is a magical, mystical place whose people are closer to a true spirituality than Europeans and their descendents; if you believe that to fight and die for a centuries-old idea is always better than to compromise and then go home to help your wife and kids adjust and thrive in the new compromised world; if you believe that modernity is why humans are generally unhappy; if you believe all of these things, then you will find The Last Samurai to be the most profound movie-going experience of your life.