the audience applauded

Sadly Over-hyped

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I watched the Rurounei Keinshin OVAs back in the day and I found them excellent, both artistically and plot-wise. The seriousness of the work made it a perfect anime for mature audiences. Then, I started to watch the prequel series and I couldn't go further than the 6th episode or so. The series were a joke, a lighthearted anime for kids full of clichéd jokes and the typical ever so powerful enemies ala Naruto, Bleach or even Dragon Ball. I almost found it offensive to be a continuation of the OVAs. The story of Himura Kenshin should have been finished with those OVAs.Now, this live action movie is based on the series, so you can expect what to find. Granted, most of the silly humour is gone, although it completely misses any sense of maturity found in the OVAs, since the story is that of the series. I literally dozed off through the first hour of the film, being quite dull and unnecessarily slow and lacking action. After that first hour, the action starts appearing and things get a bit more interesting. Not as much as to really give great credit.Alright, you have good and fast swordsmanship in a couple of fights. That hardly count for over 2 hours of movie. And what's with the physics of that huge sword the brawler wields? Ridiculous.We do have a few minutes long flashback about how Kenshin got his first scar, although it gives zero real screen time to the lady who gave him the second scar, and I find that outrageous. Alas, you won't be missing anything if you decide to skip this movie. If you are a fan of the series, you might have some fun jumping around seeing your heroes in the flesh. However, I can only imagine that those who get excited by this fact would jump around with a set of keys being shaken over their heads.This movie should be 1 hour shorter. Or based on the OVAs.

The movie opens with terrific visions of the Battle of Toba Fushimi. The ground is strewn with the dead of both Bakufu and Ishin warriors, showing that war plays no favorites. Two men are carving a path through the humanity; one wearing the Shinsengumi mountain pattern haori and smoking a cigarette, the other, a short effeminate looking your man with long red hair, moving like a whirlwind, taking down two or three men in one swing. They meet and glare at each other. However, we are left wondering how the battle would turn out because at that moment, the Emperor's flag appears and the war is over, the Ishin taking the day.The Shinsengumi captain taunts the young man with the red hair, telling him that since they are swordsmen, they must live and die by the sword. The young warrior responds by thrusting his sword into the snowy ground and walking away, shoulders slumped head down.So begins the adventure.Fans of the Rurouni Kenshin manga and anime will greatly appreciate Sato Takeru's faithful and detailed portrayal of Kenshin, both as Rurouni and as Battousai. Everything is there: the goofy smile, the large round eyes, the clueless "oro" sound he utters when confused or startled and even his archaic speech patterns.When Takeru's Kenshin turns into Battousai, his face goes from innocent and round to that of a true, deadly warrior, eyes narrowed and hard, jaw jutting out with wrath. His voice is deep and booming as he shouts out invectives as the target of his wrath.Takeru's foot and sword work are fantastic. One could believe he's truly a kenjutsu master and that he didn't just start sword training months before the movie was shot. He also incorporates one of his hobbies: break dancing! It makes for some fantastic Hiten Mitsurugi footwork.Although she has been criticized by many RK fans, I think Takei Emi was fine as Kaoru. Some said that she was too pretty for the role. I didn't think she was. She was cute, but now jaw droppingly gorgeous, which is how Kaoru was presented in the manga. Could she have been a bit brasher? Yes. However, given her limited screen time, she did her best with what she had. We do get to see her attack Kenshin and even try to fight Jinei, which is something Kaoru would have done in canon.Teruyuki Kagawa as Takeda Kanryuu is delightfully wicked, playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe in order to decide which doctor to kill off and which to let live. He keeps an office full of beautiful machines and furniture, even a Symphonion! Also, even though he is a total sociopath, he has a white bunny rabbit, a goldfish and even some beautiful Russian wolfhounds. His personality is over the top and rather reminds me of the Joker in the Tim Burton Batman film.Eguchi Yusuke plays the role of Saitou Hajime very well. Although we don't get his famous Aku Soku Zan speech, he shows his philosophy by disdaining Kenshin's non-killing vow and calling the sakabatou a "joke of a sword," the proceeding to fight Kenshin until Kenshin was forced to draw his blade, thus forcing Kenshin to remember what a duel to the death is like.Some people expressed initial doubt at Yuu Aoi portraying Megumi because they said she was too baby faced to suit the role of a mature woman. However, she put all doubts to rest with her performance in the film, especially the scene where she and Kenshin discuss their respective pasts.My only real complaints were with Sanosuke and Yahiko. Not their portrayals; Munetaka Aoki and Taketa Takeo were very well cast in their respective roles. However, their back stories were completely excised and they didn't get a lot of screen time, leaving them feeling a bit one dimensional in comparison with their deeply fleshed out portrayal in canon. However, they were still fun to watch.A questionable departure is them having Hitokiri Battousai express doubt about his assassinations in front of his superiors after his killing of Kiyosato Akira, the man who scarred him on the left cheek. Battousai didn't begin to feel doubt about what he was doing until he was confronted by Yukishiro Tomoe in canon and certainly never expressed it to his superiors.The tone of the movie is overall serious, but is never overbearing or depressing. There are certainly moments of levity, such as Yahiko's commentary on Kaoru's cooking skills (or lack thereof). Another humorous moment is Sanosuke's kitchen fight with one of Kanryuu's lackeys.Overall, I'd say the movie is 80% faithful to the manga. Some events are left out and moved around, but the spirit of the original story remains intact and that's what counts at the end of the day.

this movie exceeded my expectations as the live action usually are bad but the director of this work has broken these paradigms. The soundtrack, the direction, the essence of the characters all was well maintained, has its moments of fiction but the battles are quite real. Super recommended a great example of how they should be live action.since it was divided into 3 parts I look forward to its sequels, which also stands out is that a person who has never seen the manga / anime could understand without any problems which I appreciate. Only a few small details to improve with characters like in the case of Sanosuke that for a cosplay, but few things really.

What is the origin of a "hero" in modern film? The character Zorro, penned well over a century ago, is often credited, by film historians, as being the prototype superhero, in that he had a secret identity, great skill. and fought evil while wearing a disguise. Note however that Zorro was a mere mortal with great skill but lacked super powers or mutant blood. An important point. This writer has more than once said the greatest hero in American fiction is a character named Bob Lee Swagger. Swagger appeared in a series of novels by Stephen Hunter, some merely good, some simply staggering in their ability to weave a good tale. (Hunter had a love/hate relationship with his own character and in different novels, tried alternatively to kill him; age him to the point of uselessness; and. finally, replace him with his own son. Hollywood took one shot at bringing Bob Lee to the screen - in a film suitably named Shooter -- and botched it. The actor they cast did not resemble the fictional character at all, and the movie, while well received, had none of the flair of the hardcover novel). Which brings us to Rurouni Kenshin. In Japan, one could argue, this is their prototype hero. An ordinary man with a great skill -- the sword -- who used his skills as a killing machine in battle; and, the moment the war ended, swore he would never kill again. (But he does tend to get into fights. He carries a "reverse blade" sword, great for whacking an opponent, but not for cutting.) This is a VERY popular series in Japan, based on a manga, turned into a TV series, two live action films, and, for all I know, maybe a breakfast cereal. This is the more recent of the two live action films and, while true to the story, lacks even a pretence of charisma which, ironically, is that what one would expect from such a work. My advice to the Japanese -- the next try -- and there will be one -- find an adaptation that makes the character as interesting as he was originally drawn. Sometimes just repeating the original creates an echo -- and nothing more.