I enjoyed the original anime version of Blade of the Immortal, so thought I’d give the live action a look.
It mostly feels like a breakneck tour of a museum of anime in which hundreds of exhibits of iconic imagery are lined up in order: cute girl with sword; scarred ronin; dorky but cruel protagonist; and spikey haired protagonist with ski mask etc.
I wanted to like it, but it was far too predictable and hackneyed to be enjoyable …
I really like Takashi Mike films, they are normally highly original and offer something different. This was okay but so generic, only offering glimpses of what he can offer in some of the fight sequences at the end.
Prolific director Takashi Miike used to make interesting films, but he appears to have run out of steam. This one, based on a long-running manga, is as silly and bloodthirsty as ever, seemingly in an attempt to outdo the body count in 13 Assassins. Basically it’s a series of stylised samurai-type sword fights interspersed with boring static dialogue scenes.
The only novelty here is that our charisma-free hero can’t die because sacred bloodworms keep repairing his body. Yeah, right. He’s also cursed with an annoying shouty girl for company. The fights are bog-standard and there’s no drama abut the outcome, no matter how many posturing foes he has to cut down. The DVD has an English commentary that adds useful material, but the film hardly deserves it.