Mugen no džúnin

Takashi Miike is a director who sometimes suits me and sometimes not at all, but his 100th film is quite possibly one of his best ever, the best samurai romp I've ever seen. The very charismatic main character is a one-eyed, scarred and immortal samurai who survives alone in the woods, his life is spiced up by a little girl who seeks him out to help avenge the death of her father, who was killed by a clan of ruthless samurai led by the heartless Anotsu. The movie mixes my two favorite elements of the revenge and road movie genres and I watched it in one breath. During the journey to find Anotsu, the main character must fight his way through his cronies. Each villain is excellent, has perfect looks, amazing costumes and great skills (I have never seen so many interesting villains in one movie). There is plenty of action, of course, and it's a decent massacre, with blood spurting slowly from the screen and limbs flying around the living room. Visually it's gorgeous, story-wise it's engaging, the pacing is dynamic, the costumes and all manner of samurai weaponry are simply a joy to behold. No one else in the world can make a better samurai film than the Japanese, as they showed in Rurouni Kenshin. A great experience. 90% (14.11.2017)

I suppose the source material must have had some story to it. Here, I was actually quite puzzled until the end as to who had what ambitions, motivations. I mean, I kind of took those statements about them into account, but it was awfully empty from that perspective and there the movie was really about nothing. Plus, I'd say Miike gave everyone a lot of slack and a lot of the actors just did what they felt. Such a long movie and I didn't really get anything out of it, apart from the blood splattering and the occasional joke. I would have preferred the film to come in three parts so we could get to know everyone properly, rather than this brittle nothing. Not to mention Rin. Why was she there in the first place? Why was she supposed to be holding a sword? Is she supposed to be the opposite of all the others who just hack and slash? Her flat personality made me hate her and she was a nuisance on screen. I was looking forward to it, I was curious, but in the end all I got was a piece of crap where people are just cutting each other. But if blood spatters and severed limbs are enough for you, go for it. Maybe people who know the source material will like it better, since they know more than I do and can figure a lot of that out. It did have some interesting scenes at times, but was drowned in its own running time. 50%. (20.11.2017)

Takashi Miike has once again convinced me that he is one of the best Japanese directors, primarily in how diverse he is when it comes to genre. He can film anything. Here you get the sense that it's a realistic historical drama, but it also has elements that are primarily only winks at the viewer, and they're cool. Takashi entertained me again. (26.02.2018)