Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Jim The narrative is difficult to grasp because of the bloody nature of the film. There are the traditional themes of loyalty and honor. Revenge being a way of expressing loyalty and honor. What's different here is the theme of redemption.The protagonist (Manji) killed his superior. Mercenaries kidnapped and killed Manji's sister in order to collect the reward on his head. Manji shows great fortitude in killing all the mercenaries despite receiving multiple deathly wounds.A sorceress revives him and gifted him with immortality. And, sends a girl (Rin) to him after her parents are killed. There's a master swordsman (Anotsu) with a megalomaniac desire to dominate the world of swordsmen. With his cadre of talented killers, Anotsu destroy many dojo including Rin's father.The cynical Manji decides to help Rin presumably because of the similarity between Rin and Manji's sister. Manji uses his immortality to defeat the master killers who are more skilled than Manji. Like the film Kill Bill, the foes get a chance to say something about themselves before being killed.In the middle of the film, the narrative gets confused as Manji meets a fellow immortal with the same aim of stopping Anotsu. But, Manji ends up killing his fellow immortal.Then, Manji is defeated by a woman assassin but is spared because of the assassin's sentimentality about Rin.Finally, the government acts against Anotsu. It gets really confused as Anotsu and Manji separately battle hordes of government soldiers.The film ends with a great deal of ambiguity. Was it worth spilling the rivers of blood?Overall, the movie is audacious. Crafting a variance of the samurai genre. However, the story telling is confused by the sub-plots and the ambiguous finale. The filmmakers may have intended to break from the traditional narrative. But, IMO the scale of the epic worked against the attempted interpretation of humanity. Something sparse like Rashomon might have worked better.Certainly lots of room here for debate!

bw-22361 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.

ashnexus Http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5084170/Just got back from the cinema after another Exeter Movie nights. It was an auspicious evening. Let me try to put into words my thoughts and feelings on Blade of the Immortal. A film already sitting in my top five films of all time. In fact it is dangerously close to it sitting at the top right now above Back to the Future, Withnail and I and 2001 Space Odyssey. Hell it might even be better than Bladerunner! Blade of the Immortal is why we moved to Japan. Plane and simple. It's why us gaikokujin, fans of anime and Japanese culture and the millions of Japanese in the world love Japan. This film enraptures Japan as an essence, a state of mind and an environment. Shot largely on what looks like location near Kyoto or somewhere in Ise the cinematograhy depicts Japan in it's natural overgrown bamboo forest state. The use of water in the mise en scene enraptures us in a world of perfection and wabi sabi or mooments of zen as we say in the west. From the summer cicada and crow caws within the folio to the obake undead warrior getting stabbed with a hundred different blades and still fighting on despite the carnage. It's probably the most violent film I've ever seen and the best Samurai movie to date. Yes it's as good as Kill Bill part one and Seven Samurai combined. I lost track at how many slashes, cuts, gratuitous decapitations and nyahhhh chops occurred but every single one of them was expertly choreographed and every single one of them counted and held meaning. The script is beautifully subtle and runs like some kind of epic poem absolutely succinct with Japanese psyche and holds a wicked sense of humour that had me laughing out loud all the way through especially at some of the darker moments. As well as being outrageously funny and dark it's beautifully endearing to the soul and to what it means to fight for our lives. Why do we insist on clinging to life when life is so painful? Why do we keep going? For honour, for revenge, for love or something more primal? The film also addresses what it means to be male and female within Japanese society excellently and the roles we must play. The true meaning of what it means to be a Samurai is explored intricately. A warrior standing on the fringes of society. Not fighting for government, not part of a gang of criminals or even expert fighting school of militia. A loan and noble warrior who fights for the right, without question or pause. Never for money. For soul. It's a beautiful film guys and Kimtaku Sama is the best thing I have seen in Japanese cinema since Mifune Sama. I know him as the kakoii gentlemen from Smap, billboards and advertising but after seeing this you will never see him as anything other than the spirit of the Samurai. Tom Cruise you were not even close. Hana Sugisani San who plays Rin is also exceptional with her acting and plays the adorable younger sister to Kimtaku's Manji. She is the catalyst for the story and the pivotal role of the piece allowing moral choices to come alive within the journey, adding weight and delicate poignancy to every action that occurs within the drama.Takashi Miike Sama, omedetougozaimashta. Subarashi deshta.GO SEE IT!5 + star rating nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaSynopsis Manji, a highly skilled samurai, becomes cursed with immortality after a legendary battle. Haunted by the brutal murder of his sister, Manji knows that only fighting evil will regain his soul. He promises to help a young girl named Rin avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by ruthless warrior Anotsu. The mission will change Manji in ways he could never imagine - the 100th film by master director Takashi Miike.

politic1983 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.