User reviews

Takashi Miike is know for his great directing, and "Blade of the Immortal" once again proves, what this man is capable of when it comes to large-set fight/battle-sequences. The cinematography is breathtaking at parts, i particularly liked the opening, shot in black and white - reminded me of the old works of Akira Kurosawa. If only the narrative part of this movie would be as well-crafted as these fight scenes. Honestly, there are so many flaws in the script, i gave up counting after the 80 minutes-mark of this movie. First: Our protagonist is a totally useless, unsympathetic, whiny little girl, who doesn't work at all in this kind of plot. I understood the idea behind her character (fish out of water etc.), but i couldn't connect with her on a emotional level. She was just not interesting enough (the actress was great by the way, so don't blame her). I mean, you have all these overpowered beings in the plot, but the only "human" character does not serve well enough as a leading figure? That's one hell of a problem. Second: There are way too many situations in the story, where any sort of set-up is missing. Sometimes things happen without any proper explanation. Characters change their mind without any reasoning behind it. Thirdly: The pacing of this movie is totally off. It felt like i was watching Ben Hur at times. Maybe the removal of some fight scenes, would have been a good solution for this problem. Last but not least, there is just so much unused potential. Yeah i know, this movie wants to be like a fun action-trashfest, but you really could have told a genuint emotionally touching-story with this concept. It lacks some real depth. Although there are some interesting scenes sprinkled throughout the story (some neat interactions between pro- and antagonist; the moral ambiguity of certain characters actions - even the character-conflict of Manji). Still, if you want to see a good student-mentor-story even with pretty similar characters, than go and watch "Logan". It may not have that well-crafted fight scenes, but there for more heart and a better screenplay. "Blade of the Immortal" has a breath-taking opening-sequence, some interesting story-bits and twists and a astounding cinematography, but it lacks real emotions, neither does the screenplay live up to the potential of the basic concept. The actors are good, the soundtrack is catchy and you can have fun with this movie over all, but don't expect one of the great works Miike has accomplished over the years.

A long time ago, my introduction to Miike didn't quite work for me. My first experiences with his movies were weird and not satisfying to say the least. But that happens sometimes when you see something you are not used too. This is his 100th (!!!!) movie, yes you read that right, and he already had his 101 played at some festival in the summer, so who knows how many he has done in the meantime.

But with this one, he kind of stays in a classic story line. You still get a bit of crazy, but it's pretty straightforward. So the story of Swordsman who finds himself in more than a bind due to his "life"-circumstances (a curse of sorts), is bitter, until a woman comes and asks him for help. We do know where this is going, but it still is filled with colorful characters, some very nice action scenes and a general sense of having fun while watching it all unfold! Predictable it may be, but that does not take anything away from the movie in the end

Having read the manga for close to 20 years. The live adaptation of the film is a fulfillment to witness. As a fan of the original, I have preconceived notions as to how the characters behaved and voiced in between panels.

Therefore the performances for bringing Manji, Rin, Anotsu and all the other casts to life were satisfactory. Compressing 30 volumes into film, means that there were major trimmings made in order to fit this medium. Most notably are the back stories and developments for all characters depicted. Some characters in film are relegated to cameos, while others lack the motivational complexity of their respective arc that were spanned across the years. And yet, I still found myself intrigued by the story presented to me here on film.

The actions are brutal. Not as gory as how I would like it to be though. The original format was way more gorier in certain aspects. But I can understand why it was needed to be toned down for live adaptation.

If one is into cinematography, feudal Edo era, a story of revenge, filled with action sequences of samurai swordplay - this is a film that I would recommend. It fulfills on all those aspects. It had heartfelt moments and dashes of fun sprinkled perfectly into its pacing.

However if one is into enriching character developments, motivations for all their arcs and more; I would suggest to visit the original manga instead.

Overall, it is still a very remarkable effort from everyone involved.

In Japan during the feudal era, disgraced samurai Manji (Takuya Kimura) agrees to help young girl Rin (Hana Sugisaki) seek revenge against Anotsu Kagehisa (Sota Fukushi) and his Itto-ryu, a band of master fighters and killers. One samurai and a little girl may not seem like much against a veritable army of warriors, except that Manji has one distinct advantage: 50 years ago he was infected by "bloodworms" thanks to a mysterious priestess, and now he's seemingly immortal.

Ultra violent and with streaks of dark comedy running through it, this is an excellent samurai action film for those with a strong stomach for such mayhem. The performances are good, and I was very impressed with Hana Sugisaki as the vengeance seeking young Rin. There are lots of interesting costumes and characters, and although the movie runs nearly 2 and a half hours, that seems necessary to make room for all of the plot points. While most of the story is resolved by the end, some things are left unexplained, such as who or what the priestess is who wanders in and out of the story. That may be left for potential future installments, although as this proved to be a disappointment at the Japanese box office, any sequels look unlikely.

One of the major selling points of this movie is that it is the "100th film from director Takashi Miike." He's had an interesting, and obviously very prolific career, that in many ways matches the Japanese film industry of the last 25 years, with its many highs and lows. Due to the often shocking, offensive, and absurdist material in many of his films, critics both in Japan and elsewhere have been slow to warm to him. This latest movie has many of the classy touches of 13 Assassins, but with the added manga-inspired videogame qualities of many Japanese action films. I recommend it to fans of the samurai genre, but I don't know if it would win any new fans to the genre.

Viewed on opening night at Namba Parks Cinema in Osaka, Japan.

"Blade of the Immortal" takes place in Japan during the mid-Tokugawa Shogunate period and follows the deeds of Manji, a skilled samurai who has a decisive advantage: no conventional wound can kill him. In the past, his actions of vengeance (for the death of a family member) led to the deaths of 100 other samurai. Near death himself, he then becomes immortal at the hands of an 800-year-old nun named Yaobikuni. Decades later he befriends a young girl who desperately wants to avenge the death of her parents, who were slayed by a master swordsman who is attempting to take over all other dojos. Can Manji fight thru the villain's clan of assassins and secure justice for their deplorable actions? I was a bit surprised when confronted with the opening 10 minutes of this movie – which are legitimately outstanding. I'm not going to tell you exactly what happens, but even Miike's most vocal critics – and there are a lot of them – should admit that that sequence is fantastic. It's basically "critic proof." And it also establishes a darker tone than one might expect from the trailer. This movie gets violent and harrowing very early on, and I liked that.

"Blade of the Immortal" is an action film first and foremost, so it really needs to succeed on that front in order to work overall. Most fortunately, I think that this is a very effective action extravaganza. There is a ton of fighting in this movie, which is an obvious positive, but the placement of the action is very nicely spaced. In my recent review of "Call of Heroes", I mentioned that Benny Chan is very good at spacing out his action and maximizing the pacing of his action films. Miike does the same thing here with "Blade of the Immortal." There are a few huge battles, but also a lot of one-on-one duels (or scuffles with a small handful of characters) that are peppered throughout. "Blade of the Immortal" keeps moving and there always seems to be a fight right around the corner. I really liked that about this movie and consequently, its 140-minute runtime flies by much faster than you may think. The overall quality of action is good too.

In terms of performances, they are also generally good. Takuya Kimura carries the movie quite easily, Sota Fukushi handles the villain role well, and Erika Toda steals the show whenever she shows up. I liked the lead actress (Hana Sugisaki) too, but she does tend to scream her lines a bit too much. I think Miike should have dialed her down a bit.

I did not have subtitles while watching this in the Japanese movie theater, but the story and characters seemed rather basic and simplistic. Not a big problem in my eyes for a full throttled action movie like this, but a few of the side characters seemed to be wasted, like Chiaki Kuriyama's character (who did not do much at all, actually). The filmmakers probably wanted to insert more characters from the manga into the film, so a few of them feel like they were shoe-horned in. One thing I did like is how, at certain times, the villains are placed in the same bad predicaments as the protagonists which means that they occasionally have a common enemy.

This is an entertainingly violent, action packed film from Miike.

Fairly decent movie. There are some inconsistencies between this and the anime but that didn't bother me that much. And the anime is not that great to begin with. It's an enjoyable watch in the end.

What I didn't like: Manji's relationship with Rin is very basic. They almost never interact after the introduction scene. Rin screams. A lot.

This movie is difficult to understand. If Miike was not directing this would probably fall into the line of gorgeously shot, well acted films that suffer from a truly banal and stupid script. As others have pointed out, the protagonist is a useless girl to the extreme who is so mindless and annoying that you practically don't care what has happened to her family. The great warrior is something of both great warrior at times and others a careless, not so great warrior. And it's as if there are just a host of characters they meet along the way to vengeance which suddenly sprout motives which are completely contradictory to the wafer thin personas they have been given.

It's painful because the film has all the elements of potentially being great but instead opts for silly. There are occasional moments of excellent humor but there aren't enough of them, especially for a 2.5 hour running time where it feels like setup after setup after setup. And at times, there isn't even a natural build from one scene to the next, just characters appearing to be in a situation. It feels like lazy film making or poor editing or someone just thinking that this resembled or was a bit of a caricature of some older films to constitute parody. Whatever the case, it's far too long and without a need for all the bit players. But there should be no question that the film is gorgeous to look at - and if you really like gore, Miike doesn't spare it.

Almost plays out like a Greek tragedy but with a whole lot of bloody gore. When the film reaches the third act there are no more actual villains in there and the number of killings in this film might be good enough for a record. Yet, beyond the action, it still manages to touch on a lot of subjects on human nature.

RATED 6/10 Language: Japanese Source: Netflix

I was expecting some good revenge action flick with immortal fights. This movie has more on sword and less on vengeance...

The story is good and the sentiments and Vengeance are there, but the as overall picture it is so lengthy with repeated sword fights without much on action choreography.... the fights looks repetitive, the stuntmen are always huge and too many hand cuts.

There is no interest in the fights, its just clinking of swords. The starting is great, once the vengeance sequence starts it lost its touch and scatter too much with more side stories and characters.

Bit disappointed.

Another year, another four or five movies but unstoppable Takashi Miike. This time with the adaptation of a revered manga, full of famous faces (from Takuya Kimura to Chiaki Kuriyama) and with blood and fights to spare. Unfortunately, "Blade of the Immortal" comes out as the story a kid playing with toys would create: all action and no meat.

We have our hero Manji, who is made immortal by an old 'witch' for reasons unknown. We have the damsel in distress, Rin Asano, whose father has been killed by the 'bad one' of the movie, Anotsu Kagehisa. We have lots of extras in the form of henchmen and random people who like to get killed in fights.

So far so good. However, the endless fights end up leaving the viewer with the feeling they are watching boss fight after boss fight, and many of the characters don't get any kind of depth or development, making their appearance a service to fans of the manga, but leaving the casual viewer scratching their heads trying to keep count of all the characters that keep appearing. The acting is good, even if falling into the over-the-top region and the fights deliver, with some humor in them, as with Manji having to recover his forearm after a fight, but there are way too many of them and the ones in the last act just stretch for way too long.

Too bad, because Miike is always fun to watch. But with a shorter running time and a little bit more humor and/or plot, "Blade of the Immortal" would have been way better.

Yes, there's A LOT of blood since this is a Takashi Miike film and it's always a pleasure to see Kimura Takuya do his thing on screen. For anyone familiar with the genre, what was unexpected, but welcome, was the treatment of characters trying to find their way, each with their own sense of motivation, and reflections on the murky way of revenge. Ultimately everyone that picks up their weapon must deal with their own demons and justifications.

The most anticipated film for me for 2017. As a film writer, I look out for the quality of script and production. After watching the film 7 times in Tokyo, I can say the film's production was world-class. Cinematography, film editing, sound design, sound editing, production set design, costume design, hair and makeup, music are other aspects to die for. Miike had done an excellent directing job on the cast, especially its leading role, Manji (Takuya Kimura). Miike had successfully brought the best out of Kimura, shedding his KimuTaku's branding. In the film, Kimura portrayed Manji through and through. I almost forgot I was watching an idol actor who used to characterize squeaky-clean images in TV dramas. The role was so deep that you believed it was Manji's story and his immortal life that you really care about. Of course, the film will not be complete without the fine acting skills from co-stars. Hana Sugisaki, Sota Fukushi and Erika Toda had put on their ultimate to-die-for performance. The fighting scenes were artistically choreographed. The sound of swords clanging made your heart beat in sync with its rhythm. The script was well paced. There were moments of thrilling fights and there were moments of quietness. Lighting played a key role here in telling the story effectively. The cinematography told another story on its own. Every frame was a postcard. In my opinion, it was a successful adaption from the manga. What a great way to celebrate Miike's 100th film.

I probably liked it more than I should have because I've always been a huge fan of the manga. This is definitely one of the best Live Action adaptation of a manga. But it's mostly a lot of fight, fight, fight, cut, cut, cut, blood, blood, blood and that's not for everyone.

It takes a lot to get me to leave a review (over 1000 titles rated, just 25 reviews). A film has to really be overrated OR on the other end of the spectrum. Blade of the Immortal is just that, an underrated film. Just to name some of the rare ones I felt an obligation to write about: V for Vendetta, Collateral Beauty, The Big Short, and Concussion.

Blade of the Immortal is an adaptation of a popular Japanese manga (comic) released in 1993. Having little familiarity with both the manga and TV adaptation, I will not give my opinion on how this compares. This is purely based on the way the story was told as well as the actors within.

This is a film with an outstanding cast. Takuya Kimura and Hana Sugisaki steal the show with performances that were beyond believable and packed to the brim with emotion.

Manji (Takuya Kimura) is a battle-hardened samurai who committed quite heinous crimes in a past life. A mysterious 800-year-old nun introduces a bloodworm into his body which will regerate/heal any damaged part of his body, thereby being cursed with immortality. In order to be freed from this eternal life, he has vowed to kill 1000 evil men.

Manji crosses paths with a young girl named Asano Rin (Hana Sugisaki) whose parents were murdered in front of her by a gang of elite fighters. He promises to help her avenge their death.

This film has both incredible choreographed fight scenes as well as great cinematography. I hadn't heard about it prior to viewing this and was quite taken aback. In all honesty, by having no background information of the movie I was able to truly enjoy this one. It's been hard these last few years to find new films that blow me away. Blade of the Immortal is one such film. Do yourself a favor and go watch it. Well worth the time.

I mean, with that premise and Miike as a director, it really should be one of the best samurai action films of all time, and as unreasonable as it might sound, it's a little disappointing it's not.

BUT: it does satisfy when it comes to action (of which there's a lot- two big set pieces - one at the start and one at the end - with lots of smaller ones in between), it's decently shot, and I liked the two lead performances. The action scratches the same itch that some of the skirmishes in the later Lone Wolf and Cub films do, so that was appreciated.

The film, however, is somewhat let down by its excessive runtime, a story that's serviceable but unremarkable, and characters that are hard to get super invested in. But the stuff that works is good enough that this is a pretty easy recommendation for samurai film fans.

Not much to say except it is clear on every second of the screen there has been so much care and time put into it all. It becomes a satisfying emotionally-driven film by the end, and is no doubt worth your time.

The acting, direction, music, cinematography, and story are all working together to create a truly entertaining experience - and I don't know why someone wouldn't enjoy this film.

Has a good and interesting plot, storyline is easy to follow, and my interest was on the movie until the end, ending was satisfying also :)

This film was good. Sôta Fukushi' first look was dashing. I really liked his character. Everyone played their role perfect. I'm giving 7 because this movie seems very exaggerated.