X
- 2017
- R
- Magnet Releasing
- 2 h 20 m
- 2017
- R
- Magnet Releasing
- 2 h 20 m
Summary Samurai Manji has taken a lot of lives, both innocent and guilty, and now lives life in feudal Japan as a criminal. After being cursed with immortality until he kills enough evil men, Manji meets a young girl who enlists him to be her body-guard. Swearing loyalty, protection and vengeance against the group of sword fighters who slaughter...
Directed By: Takashi Miike
Written By: Hiroaki Samura, Tetsuya Oishi
- 2017
- R
- Magnet Releasing
- 2 h 20 m
- 2017
- R
- Magnet Releasing
- 2 h 20 m
Blade of the Immortal
72
6.8
Where to Watch
Summary Samurai Manji has taken a lot of lives, both innocent and guilty, and now lives life in feudal Japan as a criminal. After being cursed with immortality until he kills enough evil men, Manji meets a young girl who enlists him to be her body-guard. Swearing loyalty, protection and vengeance against the group of sword fighters who slaughter...
Directed By: Takashi Miike
Written By: Hiroaki Samura, Tetsuya Oishi
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
72
96% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
72
96% Positive
25 Reviews
25 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Stunning fights and creepy CG come wrapped inside a blade-sharp story, as the swordsman vows to hunt the killers of a young girl’s parents. Truly epic.
The story isn’t wildly original – think ‘Leon’ with throwing stars – and it’s overlong, but the action is unrelenting, thrillingly staged and occasionally even flat-out hilarious.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 41 User Ratings
6.8
71% Positive
29 Ratings
29 Ratings
15% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
15% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 41 User Ratings
6.8
71% Positive
29 Ratings
29 Ratings
15% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
15% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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Takashi Miike is one of my most favorite Japanese film Directors. Definitely this is not his best work, yet, it's really good. This film is a little lengthy, slow paced drama with impressive sword fight sequences. Character development was also amazing, though I have no idea about the manga it was based on. A worth watching stylish action film.
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He even slips in a moment that will make fans of his transgressive masterpiece "Ichi the Killer" squeal with nauseated delight.
The movie also runs 2 hours, 20 minutes, which is a lot of dead samurai. The violence is often numbing, and the translations — the movie is subtitled — are sometimes as deadly as the swordsmanship. On the other hand, Blade of the Immortal is flat-out gorgeous. Widescreen, lush, beautiful.
The story’s supernatural elements enable Miike to take huge liberties with chanbara, the oldest genre in Japanese cinema, and break free from rigid traditions of choreographing swordplay sequences.
For all the great action and idiosyncratic antagonists (Erika Toda, as a brutally efficient warrior who can’t stomach violence is a particular standout) Blade of the Immortal is altogether too much.
At 2 hours, 21 minutes, feels like a slow death by a thousand cuts.
Once again Miike does not disappoint with this adaptation of the popular manga series. Supported by good acting performances, great cinematography, very well made fight sequences and a decent soundtrack, "Blade of the Immortal" is never boring and manages to make you care for the characters. If you're a fan of Miike or the original manga series, you will not be disappointed.
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De temps en temps, le cinéma japonais accouche d'un bon petit film très typique du folklore local avec moult sabres et autres coupe-coupes et surtout des montagnes de macabés ! mais d'ailleurs, je viens de me rendre compte que c'est tiré d'un manga que je n'ai point lu, alors si on trouve dans ce "Blade" machin quelques excentricités, je suppose qu'il ne faut pas s'en étonner outre-mesure...
Bref, ça coupe beaucoup ici et même que ça tache pas mal mais ça n'éclabousse pas autant qu'on aurait pu s'y attendre ou l'espérer... un peu étonnant de la part de Takashi Miike ! Cela étant, ce dernier délivre une réalisation inégale et souvent perfectible : beaucoup de plans mal cadrés, de zooms idiots et de filmage à l'épaule et de secouage de caméra...
Heureusement, ce n'est pas la majorité du temps, malgré une quantité de combats un peu... exagérée sans doute (!)... durant les 2h20 du film (ah quand même !). Il aurait fallu couper un peu, enfin je veux dire élaguer sensiblement, avec responsabilité bien sûr, car on trouve le temps un peu long quand même, l'air de rien.
L'acteur Kimura incarne en tout cas le samouraï le plus cool qui puisse être, volontiers aigri et désabusé mais qui a toujours gardé ce fameux esprit, ce code de la probité, de la justice et de la droiture : l'esprit samouraï en somme. La gamine donne en outre à cet "Immortal" un côté évidemment très "Léon", ce qui n'est pas pour déplaire et par ailleurs l'humour est bel et bien présent, que ce soit dans les excès excessifs ou de nombreux clins d'oeil...
Pari plutôt gagné donc pour ce film de Miike, lequel on le sait est totalement imprévisible et très inconstant dans sa longue filmographie... on ne sait jamais sur quoi on va tomber avec lui. Mais là, ça tombe plutôt bien... finalement !
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The movie has the occasional cool moment but it's bogged down by awkward performances, poor fight scene camera work and editing, and some god awful dialogue. I suppose you'll like it if you're a fan of the source material but without fandom to cloud judgment it's just an overlong movie filled with new baby faced bad guys with questionable hair every 15 minutes.
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Honestly can't think of a single redeemable thing about this movie. The action scenes were far too close up so you couldn't see any real gore or violence. The one on one fight scenes were almost exactly the same each time with no real choreography going on. They just sort of cut each other a couple times and that's it. The quality of the movie very much screams "straight to video" release and not something you'd pay to go see in theaters. And don't even get me started on the story.
I really wanted to like this one as it screamed 13 Assassins to me. In the end, It was just a massive disappointment. Painfully unoriginal and fails to live up to the big expectations behind it.
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Production Company
Warner Bros.,
Oriental Light and Magic (OLM),
Recorded Picture Company (RPC),
CJ E&M,
Filosophia,
GyaO,
Ken-On,
Kôdansha,
Rakueisha,
Sega Sammy Entertainment,
TV Asahi,
Toei Kyoto Studios
Release Date Nov 3, 2017
Duration 2 h 20 m
Rating R
Tagline To save her life he will take a thousand others.
Awards
Asian Film Awards
• 3 Nominations
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
• 2 Nominations
Japan Movie Critics Award
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
