Blade of the Immortal (2017)

Director: Takashi Miike

A decent, if a bit overstuffed, cartoonish adaptation of a popular, violent samurai-era manga.

The story is based on the hit Japanese manga (comic book) series of the same name by writer and artist Hiroaki Samura. I was a fan of this comic back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and had kept up with the series for about half of its considerable length. So I was curious when I heard that hyper-prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike (13 Assassins) adapted it into film.

The story is set in feudal Japan, in the thick of the samurai era. A lethally-skilled mercenary known as "Manji" has blood infused with "blood worms," which heal any wounds with amazing speed. This makes Manji virtually immortal, though he seems to be dejected and devoid of purpose in life. That is until a young woman, Rin, seeks his aid in satisfying her desire for revenge. She wants to find and kill Anotsu Kagehisa, the young leader of a group of revolutionaries who want to destroy the long-standing system of formal fighting schools in Japan. Kagehisa and his band, contrary to traditional fighting school structures, uses unorthodox fighting weapons and techniques, making them all heretics in the eyes of the established martial arts schools. Rin wants Kagehisa dead because he killed her father and mother, due to her father's rejection of Kagehisa's revolutionary ideas. Finding and getting to him are no easy feat, however, as the young upstart is surrounded by a large band of ruthless and highly-skilled minions.

Blade of the Immortal is a pretty wild ride, though one that I was prepared for from having read the manga. Director Takashi Miike is known for very flashy, violent movies, and this one is right in his wheelhouse.  The story is populated by colorful - both visually and personality-wise - oddball characters, nearly all of whom range from "violent" to "murderously deranged." As Manji and Rin work their way towards Kagehisa, nearly every edged weapon you can imagine flies, along with buckets of blood. It's stylish, vibrant, and brutal.

Manji squares off against a whole bunch 'o dudes. This is a
pretty typical situation for the deathless, irritable samurai
without a master. His immortality, along with his immense
fighting skills, help even the odds, though.

But is it good? Yeah, I thought so. Not great, but compelling and entertaining enough. It probably would have been better served as a mini-series, though (I just learned that this is exactly what has happened - a full anime series started in late 2018). Despite clocking in at a good two hours and twenty minutes, the movie often felt rushed, introducing and cramming too many new characters down our throats in rapid succession. Most of the key adversaries are strange characters in and of themselves, each of whom could have been given more time in order to reveal the odd and sometimes highly-twisted aspects of their motivations and psyches. As it was, though, a new fighting weirdo would show up, trade blows with Manji, then get killed within a few minutes. After roughly three minutes of slower story, that cycle would repeat. And so it went for the entire second act of the film.

The original manga was a fun, modern, and fantastical take on violent samurai tales, and the movie maintains that spirit. It looks and feels rather campy much of the time, and the final battle scene, as epic as it is, drags out for too long in my opinion. Still, I enjoyed with one, as I imagine others will who want to see a well-done, live-action movie version of a story usually told in comic book or cartoon form.