Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

A Major Disappointment

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The manga was a delight to the eyes but very shallow for the mind. the movie is more of the same.but to actually make you sit while someone shreds 500 guys to pieces is, in a way, already quite a decent achievement.

This is an extraordinary movie. It is extremely well done from all points of view. It contains violence and gore but if you can see beyond that you will find true art in this one (not too explicit, a good part is more suggestive than visual). If it is hard for you to understand or get pass the violence you need to consider that the violence is just a metaphor for human sacrifice or human determination of something that is above everything. This movie is about love, virtue and everything that comes from those two by mistake or by human nature. This movie might be not easy to understand but it is very close to possible for anybody who wants to understand it regardless of anything that stands against that. First: it is not predictable. Second: it has a very good cinematic and, regarding the fighting scenes, there is not a single move wrongly done. I assume that some parts are cut out only to make it shorter, but, besides that, there is not a single detail that does not contain something to bring value to the movie itself. Third: it contains a deep and strong philosophy that will evolve along with the course of action. I was not able to predict the end, may be you will be, but, even in that case, you will still like the art of it.

Over-the-top and excessive are two phrases that can be pointed in the general direction of director Miike Takashi: the high-octane montage that greets us to the Dead or Alive trilogy; the comical blood-splatting of Ichi the Killer; the extensive battle scene of 13 Assassins. All are examples of pushing cinema to its limits of taste, morality and viewer boredom threshold. The third is an interesting one. His late Nineties and early new millennium films were often notable for their excessive violence, however, this violence was often creatively twisted into place alongside other, often stronger elements. The nature of relationships and power balances between characters in Ichi the Killer; the slow-building tension of Audition; the nostalgia of Nostalgia. With the budgets more limited, Miike would seemingly earn his stripes and get creative, but now with the budgets and hype much greater, has excess simply become self-indulgence? Based on the manga, Blade of the Immortal, the supposed ninety-ninth film of Miike's now one hundred not out career, starts with Manji (Takyu Kimura) with a price on his head, fighting off a hoard of bounty hunters, while trying to protect his younger sister. A troubled, masterless samurai, Manji duly fights them all off, but at the cost of numerous wounds. Pouring blood worms into his wounds, a mysterious old woman heals Manji, giving him the curse of immortality, though the same cannot be said for his sister. Switching forward fifty years, Manji has been living a desolate life alone and un-aged, but is sought by the young daughter of a dojo master killed by the Itto-ryu: a school determined to resurrect the skill of sword-fighting as a necessary evil, unlike the simple physical education it has become. Wary at first, Manji vows to help Rin (Hana Sugisaki) get her revenge, largely, it seems, because she resembles his young sister. Bloodshed ensues as the Itto-ryu (and others) challenge Manji to battle one-by-one, soon discovering his immortal powers. The Itto-ryu also seek to become the Shogun's fencing school of choice, but find themselves deceived by the Shogun's army resulting in a three-way stand-off between Manji and Rin, Anotsu (Sota Fukushi, the head of the Itto-ryu) and the Shogun's vast forces and some other side story characters thrown-in again at the end to further the silliness. What results is a perhaps overly-long sword fight between hundreds of men and a couple of women in the vein of 13 Assassins.On balance, there is probably more bad than good with Blade of the Immortal. Over-indulgence perhaps the main problem. While we expect this to be a slash-fest with arms chopped-off galore, when this is the main crux of the film, it becomes a little tedious. An obvious comparison, Ichi the Killer centred around two main characters and their sadomasochistic relationships with those who hold power over them. The gore is an amusing and fun distraction, rather than the main draw. Here, Miike chooses to go for long, drawn-out fight scenes that offer little after the first thirty seconds other than just adding to the body count. Little is particularly developed in terms of characterisation, other than Manji coming to terms with immortality being a fate worse than death and his explanation to Rin that revenge only leads to bloodshed - something Miike adequately shows. Villain Anotsu delivers a surface-level monologue midway through the film, but beyond this, the audience is given few clues as to whether to love or loath him. Extended fight scenes is nothing new to Miike, with 13 Assassins having the mother of all battles, but this was an epic battle to which the film had been building, rather than a extended slash-fest, having already had some earlier slash-fests. The film looks pretty in parts, with some good cinematography and the special effects fit the bill. But as a bigger, more anticipated release than perhaps his films in the Nineties received, the bigger scale has come at the cost of creativity. His peer Shinya Tsukamoto still works to limited budgets, but still creates some inventive and interesting works. Manji is referred to as the Hundred Man Killer and Miike is now a one hundred production director. But with his recent trajectory, his career seems not so much immortal, rather a slow death.

This review of Blade of the Immortal is spoiler free**** (4/5)Japanese VETERAN WRITER/DIRECTOR Takashi Miike is a busy man. Of course with 100 films to his name you don't expect him to take a break at some point. But as anyone will tell you if you have a dream to pursue or a record to break, then go for it. The latter may be what Miike is aiming to do here, at only 57 years-old who's to say he can't make another 100 features in his future years. To be fair, nobody would blame him. His latest Blade of the Immortal he shows to have lost none of that signature madcap energy which made the frenetic action from Ichi the Killer and 13 Assassins. An adaptation of Hiroaki Samura's manga of the same name. We open with Manji (Takuya Kumira) a skilled samurai in a revenge battle after the death of his sister, after killing what seems to be an army of swordsmen he's brutally injured in comes a mysterious woman who gives him a terrible curse: Immortality. This, obviously, means he can never die, but this power comes with the ability to heal his wounds, yes, a bit like Wolverine. Though Manji doesn't heal by simply liquid adamantium running through his body, Miike's way to make him heal is more gruesome and more painful. With this curse and his skill with the sword he promises to help Hana Sugisaki's Rin, a girl who wants revenge after her parents are killed by Anotsu Kagehisa (Sôta Fukushi) the leader of a group of swordsmen.Whereas 13 Assassins was more of a classical tale with samurai fighting behind a backdrop of ancient Japan, Blade of the Immortal is a bit more comical and could essentially be seen as the mutant child between 13 Assassins, Ichi the Killer and X-Men. Unlike the clawed mutant, Manji has to kill a thousand evil men in order to regain mortality. Let the sword fighting begin! Yet, again Miike keeps up his tradition of a rising body count, blood splattering all over the ground and limbs flying everywhere. And with a runtime of 2 hours and 20 minutes that's quite a lot of bodies, good luck counting them. Indeed, Miike isn't shy to introduce new techniques during the swordfights, one particular standout is a woman wielding a kind of hand-held corn plough, and other than that standout he loses a point for lacking originality as most of the fight scenes including the long finale often feel repetitive. However what the film lacks in originality he gains the point back for the kinetic thrills and his characterization of the heroes and the villain, their performances are incredible. Despite the high body count, Blade of the Immortal is both extremely warm and funny and is perhaps one of his best films yet, it's big, it's bloody and it's brilliant. Congratulations, Miike on your centenary! VERDICT Frenetic action meets healing powers Miike's 100th film is filled with more, madcap energy and more kinetic thrills than most Hollywood actioners.