Koyuki San

This is an excerpt of an excerpt from a mail I sent to a friend of mine...

Have you watched The Last Samurai? Most girls I know watched it for Tom Cruise!!! So, if you like him, I am sure you would have watched it too. I really like that movie primarily because it deals with the Orient. But as I watch it more often (---- lent me the DVD) I like the Japanese actress more. Her name is Koyuki and she happens to be a model. Wonderfully simple features but she is so gracefully beautiful (not essentially good looking, but ...). There are 2 scenes when I really fell in love with her. There is one in which Tom comes over to her to let her know that he is leaving. She is washing her hair in the spring. She turns and sees him and the sheer pleasure of seeing him is evident on her face. Beautiful expressions. He excuses himself and continues to tell her what he has come to tell her. She slowly pushes (there is a better word for this action but I simply can't recall) her arm back into the sleeve of her kimono and turns. Fine kimono, fine hair, fine features. She notices that he wears his uniform and her expressions change, softly but quite marked. And he tells her that he has to leave. All she says is "Hai" (Japanese for yes). He tells her that she has been kind to him and he shall never forget her. She is quite in love with him now, but like a sophisticated woman of her times, she cannot acknowledge it. Class. When he says this to her, you should see the pain on her face. She says nothing and bows her head. I would have died then and there. Such grace, such finesse. What could I, but worship such a woman? In another scene (actually this precedes the one I described above), Tom apologises to Koyuki for killing her husband. She realizes that there was no fault of his, and she tells him that her husband did his duty, and Tom did his. She accepts his apology with a simple statement, "I accept your apology...". You should see the change in expression on her face from a casual expression (before he apologises) to sheer pain (when he apologises). Her face changes from marble (we need a word like marblesque in English to suggest the smooth texture of such a face) to pink to deep pink when her veins stand out and her breath is drawn in raggedly. You have to look hard to notice it. Remarkable. Finally her face relaxes and tears of joy slide down her face. Just one or two tears. She doesn't present herself in excess. Brilliant woman. Tom cruise was wonderful too, and I am surprised that he didn't even get a nomination. Every expression of her's is wonderful. You want to ever know who I would call a classy woman? Watch this movie, and watch for Koyuki
The word I was looking for (as I mentioned above) was "tucks". Nothing fabulous, but most appropriate. Tucks does have a very soothing connotation