Kamui no ken

It started off promising, and even though it was animation from 1985, I liked it. But then it kind of went off the rails. A normal Japanese animated film turned into a Colombian soap opera. The family relationships, the twists and turns – it all started to undermine the film after about 35 minutes. The strong moments were buried under the piles of flashy contradictions and an overlong running time. Not to mention the fact that Japanese is apparently spoken all over the world, you find your family after all, you discover a Frenchman raised by Indians, you meet Mark Twain, you get One Piece... and you get to play a part in the Boshin War. About halfway through the movie, I was looking forward to the end credits, and it took a lot of work before I made it there... I must mention the music though, it was the only thing that was really worth it, even if it sounded a bit spastic at times. It was funny, not by design. (22.01.2011)