2017 Films: #30. Blade of the Immortal

An OnDemand viewing on December 2nd. Renown director Takashi Miike brings this manga series of the same name to the screen as his 100th film.

Taking place in feudal Japan, our protagonist Manji, has killed a corrupt lord and his guards, one of which is the husband of his little sister Machi, who loses it over the grief of her husband's death. A bounty is placed on Manji's head and his sister is captured. On the way to rescue his sister, Mani duels an 800 year old samurai, which really doesn't do much for the advancement of the plot other than to give you a little, but not really needed, backstory on how one becomes an immortal samurai.

Machi is killed in front of Manji and he gracefully hacks his way through the group before succumbing to his wounds. Before he does pass, a wandering mystic inserts sacred bloodworms into his body to bring him back to life. Fast forward 52 years and young Rin's parents are murdered by the Ittō-ryū under the orders of Kagehisa Anotsu. Seeking revenge, Rin comes across the same wandering mystic that created Manji and she tells Rin where to find Manji to enlist his aid. Manji at first doesn't want the gig but the fact that Rin looks exactly like his sister Machi, he takes the job with hopes that by helping Rin, he can cleanse his soul. Manji starts killing off Anotsu's subordinates and it leads to a final battle with Kagehisa.

There is a lot going on with this film. There's an entire subplot of Kagehisa trying to bring all the dojos in line to teach one form of fencing, the one he's really good at. This is why he kills Ren's father. Kagehisa is betrayed by his backer, Habaki has betrayed him and killed his follower prior to the final battle with Manji. Since the film is based on a long running manga series, there's a lot of story and characters that would need to be worked into the film. But with a run time of 141 minutes, the film drags at a few points. I chose to watch this because it sounded cool so for me to say that there too many characters and too many scenes (do we really need another scene where a character asks for help/training from the protagonist, who initially refuses but ends up taking the job anyway? Can't the guy just say, "sure, I would love to help train/exact revenge" for a change? In fact can we do away with that trope already? There wouldn't be much of a movie if the guy actually stuck by his guns and not trained/helped whomever asked)  is a little shortsighted but it was too long.

The film got an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating but it was apparently not that well received in Japan. Blade of the Immortal is a solid film but it pales comparison to Miike's 13 Assassins from 2011. I would recommend 13 Assassins over Blade of the Immortal. To me, this could have been a better film with another round in the editing room.