7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
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.
Starring: Takuya Kimura, Hana Sugisaki, Sôta Fukushi, Hayato Ichihara, Erika TodaForeign | 100% |
Martial arts | 26% |
Supernatural | 5% |
Comic book | Insignificant |
Period | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Tom Mes jokes in the early going of his commentary on this new Arrow release of Takashi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal that folks really shouldn’t believe PR hype, and that critics in particular shouldn’t parrot that hype without questioning it first. Mes mentions this in the context of the widely advertised “fact” that Blade of the Immortal was (supposedly) Miike 100th film, when (according to Mes, who should know) it decidedly wasn’t. Mes laughs as he documents a number of high-falutin' industry "rags" (if I may be so bold) like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter that echoed this supposed data point, clearly leaving the impression that Mes is a firm advocate of not believing everything you read. That "100th film" imprimatur at least gave this outing a marketing hook of sorts, though kind of interestingly, it didn’t seem to matter that much when it came to delivering actual box office receipts. Despite being based on a popular manga which itself had a previous anime adaptation (one that doesn’t seem to be available on Blu-ray, at least not yet), Blade of the Immortal didn’t seem to quite find an audience in theaters, a situation that might be rectified (and/or at least altered, depending on how you feel about the film) with this release, along with the recent Magnolia Blu-ray release in the United States (other regions are receiving their own releases as well, as can be discovered by setting the search parameters on this site to global). As kind of cheeky (scarred or otherwise) as this may sound, Blade of the Immortal kind of reminded me of another tale of a troubled enforcer helping a young girl on a quest for vengeance, namely True Grit , at least in some of its broader plot outlines. But there’s little humor here, even the typically extremely black comedy that Miike likes to exploit at times even as he’s documenting unseemly behaviors and (as is his wont) lots of carnage. Instead, while fairly relentlessly grim and at least occasionally hyperbolically violent, Blade of the Immortal actually presents Miike in a (relatively) restrained way, with the director offering some of his by now expected stylistic flourishes (as in the first twelve minutes of the film being in black and white), but perhaps without some of the continually disturbing content that has at times informed some of his other offerings.
Blade of the Immortal is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Arrow's insert booklet
only contains the following fairly generic verbiage on the transfer:
Blade of the Immortal features a sporadically immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original Japanese. The opening sequence has some very impressive surround activity in the huge battle scene, something that's probably only topped by the even huger battle that caps the film. In between, things tend to kind of ping pong back and forth between quieter dialogue moments (which frequently offer ambient environmental sounds placed around the surround channels) and louder, more boisterous, fight scenes. The film has a rather beautifully rich sounding score by Koji Endo, and the music tends to fill the side and rear channels with regularity.
It's always a risky gambit to outright recommend a Miike film to the general filmgoing public, but if you're a fan of this director, you'll probably enjoy this film, though I have to say it may not even satisfy some Miike fans who might want even more graphic violence than this film offers. This is an extremely stylish outing in any case, and it does manage to create two extremely memorable characters in the form of Manji and Rin. Arrow has provided a release with excellent technical merits and enjoyable supplements, and for Miike aficionados if for no one else, Blade of the Immortal comes Recommended.
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