Blade of The Immortal is an entertaining chanbara throwback.

 

Takeshi Miike is once again in the director's seat of today's subject. The acclaimed director reached the milestone of making 100 movies back in 2017 and he did so with a very entertaining live action adaption of a very popular manga that took over 20 years to conclude. I am of course referring to Hiroaki Samura's 30 volume epic, Blade of The Immortal. In taking up the task of adapting Blade of The Immortal, both Takeshi Miike and screenplay writer Tetsuya Oishi had an insurmountable amount of source material to navigate through. Naturally, they couldn't include a large amount of the details in the story, but I believe that they made something fantastic with what they did manage to include. 

The live action movie begins with a flashback sequence. The very first scene features protagonist, Manji, in a battle against several men. We then see Machi, the wife of one of the men he has killed, driven to madness by grief. In a moment of comedy, Machi picks up a horse turd and thinks that it's a rice ball. This accomplishes a bit of comedy as the audience could laugh at her insanity and yet, also shows her declined mental state. Following this, Machi disappears whilst Manji speaks to a mysterious hooded woman. Chasing after Machi, Manji discovers that she is being held captive by some rather nasty bounty hunters. Manji complies with the bounty hunters demands to drop his weapons, only for that same weasel to cut Machi down in front of a helpless Manji. After a ferocious battle, Manji manages to slaughter the bounty hunters, albeit with severe wounds. Just when he thinks he's dead, the mysterious hooded woman appears and gifts him with the curse of immortality. She does this by infecting his body with powerful bloodworms that will heal any wounds he suffers. This whole opening sequence is shot in black and white, giving it a very Kurosawa/old school Chanbara vibe. A fitting tribute to the golden age of Samurai cinema. 

After the flashback sequence, the majority of the movie is in colour. The movie follows the manga's plotline in which Rin Asano seeks revenge on the group of skilled swordsmen known as Itto-Ryu after having witnessed Anotsu Kagehisa murder her father. Rin is told to seek out Manji by the mysterious hooded woman and although he's initially reluctant to aid her, he eventually acquiesces. One by one, Manji takes down the Itto-Ryu whilst Anotsu Kagehisa's ambitions to unite all dojos under his leadership fails. 

Whilst Manji is immortal, he has a caveat in which he still feels pain when wounded and even more so, when regenerating. His healing eventually worsens after being cut by a sword coated with a bloodworm-killing poison. This allows the audience to sympathise with Manji whilst also, making the protagonist feel somewhat vulnerable instead of an unstoppable killing machine. He's not untouchable and even gets defeated by a skilled opponent during the events of the movie. His choice of attire is quite intriguing, the black and white hakama almost representing a yin yang symbol of someone between life and death.

Also of note is the fact that Anotsu Kagehisa is not a one note villain. He's almost sympathetic due to his backstory, his unwillingness to kill Rin and the way the final showdown comes to be. He's more nuanced than a being of being evil and that's a great thing. 

As far as the movie itself in regard to it being an adaptation of the long running manga, it's a mixed bag. A lot of stuff had to be removed for the movie to have an appropriate run time. Several members of the Itto-Ryu don't make an appearance in the movie such as Araya Kawakami, Doa Yoshino and Ozuhan. Whilst it's unfortunate as these were some of my favourite characters in the manga, Miike did his best to include as much as possible and the 2 hours, 21mins runtime shows it. It's also a one off with no sequel in sight, which explains why the whole plot was condensed the way it was. 

The movie is directed in typical Miike fashion. Competently shot with a wide variety of camera angles and techniques as well as the usual zaniness one would expect. It's helped by a fast pace and the editing is quite splendid. Of course, the many fight scenes are rather chaotic and frenzied, beautiful in a sense. It's sheer brutality as limbs are chopped off, blood splatters are frequent and almost seem improvised at times. These elements combine to add a unique blend of realism whilst maintaining certain supernatural elements such as Manji's immortality. 

In terms of performances, KimuTaku aka Kimura Takuya, was absolutely fantastic in the lead role of Manji. He really shone in the emotional scenes and came across as a pure badass when engaged in battle. His fight scenes were handled exceptionally well for someone allegedly past their prime. Not bad for a guy that was going against being typecast. 

Sota Futoshi also put in a magnificent performance as main antagonist, Anotsu Kagehisa. When I first saw that he was cast, I had severe doubts about how he'd portray the role. Fortunately, he really nailed it and made Kagehisa a nuanced character that's almost sympathetic. 

On the flip side, Hana Sugisaki spent the majority of the movie almost grating my nerves as she constantly shouts and almost never fights alongside Manji. She did well with most other scenes though. 

 

The rest of the cast put in some solid performances. Ichikawa Ebizo XI was very memorable as Eiku Shizuma and was heavily involved in one of my favourite sequences of the movie along with Manji. His delivery is outstanding and makes you feel some sympathy for the plight of his character. Erika Toda was solid if unspectacular as Makie.

Overall, I would personally recommend the movie for both fans of the manga and of course for those who just love a solid movie. Bonus points if you love a good samurai movie and are a fan of old school classics in the genre such as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi and Akira Kurosawa movies. Blade of the Immortal features fantastic action sequences, brilliant performances and is directed by an accomplished filmmaker who knows what he is doing.