Directed by Keishi Otomo
Based on the manga by Nobuhiro Watsuki
I have never been more than a casual fan of the anime called Samurai X which is properly titled Rurouni Kenshin in its native Japan, and is based on a popular manga. I have, however seen enough episodes, including a feature length special that came out on Home Box Office many years ago, to appreciate the story of an ex-assassin with unparalleled swordsmanship skill wandering around 19th century Japan seeking to redeem himself from a life of bloodshed. I missed the first live-action adaptation of this series, which came out two years ago and I was sorry I did, which was why I was only to happy to join the long queue to watch the first of two sequels: Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno.
While Kenshin Himura (Takeru Satoh) is living peacefully after the events of the last film, trouble is brewing in Kyoto as a warlord named Makoto Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara) surfaces. Like Himura, Shishio was one of the imperial government's top assassins, whom they attempted to liquidate after winning the Bakumatsu war. He proves to be a royal headache for the government, and when several of their officers fail to take him down, the government turns to Kenshin for help.
This movie, quite honestly, is quite unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have seen comic book adaptations by the boatload, including those told using an Asian sensibility, specifically Bong-Joon Ho's Snowpiercer, and I have enjoyed a great many of them, but I have also noted that with few exceptions, none of them really focused that much on the importance of really gripping fight scenes. A few months ago I was celebrating Captain America: The Winter Soldier for having the best choreographed fight scenes in any comic book-based movie I had ever seen, not quite realizing at the time that just what I was missing.
Basically, the fight scenes in Rurouni Kenshin are a wondrous marriage of everything that's been learned from swordplay and martial arts movies over the last century. There's a mix of the balletic grace of the Hong Kong action film and the Chinese wuxia epic as well as the bone-crunching, rough and tumble feel of films like The Raid. Of course, all of this is still tempered with a comic book sensibility that, from time to time, reminds the audience that this is all fantasy, but that does not detract in any way from the utterly engaging action sequences.
The story isn't really that much to write home about, truth be told. The movie still carries the animated series' somewhat heavy handed, purportedly pacifist message, but is still about a guy who beats up people with the flat part of his sword (though he does a magnificent job of it). I don't speak Japanese, so I can't really say how well people acted, but to my mind the performances were convincing enough, even if the guy who played Sanosuke, one of the more prominent supporting characters in the anime, kind of portrayed him as a buffoon. Apart from him, though, the actors, in so far as recreating the cartoon characters from whom their roles were derived, turned in performances that were pretty much spot on, and that was a treat to watch. Still, I get the sense that someone unfamiliar with this world and the characters that move in it would have a hard time understanding why an ex-samurai with flaming red hair would be walking around Meiji-era Japan, or why he would fight people like a blond goon with hair that's four inches high. In short, this film isn't exactly for anime novices, which could be a little jarring to the casual viewer.
To me, though, it was still a lot of fun, and I am definitely looking forward to the sequel, which will be coming out in a little over a month.
7.5/10
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