Kate, Yasuke and Kenshin: The Beginning

Two tragedies (and one animated WTF) set in Japan.

Kate

When the titular assassin (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is poisoned, she is on borrowed time to enact revenge and perhaps become a better person for it. While the plot is pretty straight forward, it is in the telling that kept us captivated - especially when set against the backdrop of modern day Japan. I'm pretty sure there was a cameo of the Tokyo Ghoul anime in there too.

She's having a bad day.

Of course it helps that there is a decent body count and some exciting action scenes to help things along, though some of Kate's kicks really don't look like they have much power behind them. Still something I'd watch again, I give it two and a half Boom Boom Lemons out of five.

Yasuke (Season 1)

Set in Japan during the honorable times of the samurai, spell casters and giant mecha, a black man (the titular Yasuke) gets roped into saving the country. This animated series definitely goes off the rails early and the art is well animated with action sequences aplenty. Most importantly Yasuke himself is a good character, making us eager to watch him every episode. The plot is actually mostly ok too, despite being a really odd blend. Recommended if you want something different, I give this two and a half Nobunagas out of five. I don't really care if there's a Season 2 for this one though.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

While it's funny that "The Final" comes out before this, I can safetly say that its because this is a better movie story wise. All throughout the other films people keep mentioning how Kenshin was once a cold blooded killer - well, this film focuses on that part of his life and it actually helps that most of the fights, while still epic and cool, are not too over the top like some of the previous ones have been (no mid air dodging a chain gun here lol).

That said, the antagonists certainly make a lot of mistakes and if you've seen the anime counterpart of this movie it plays almost exactly the same (but this one is superior). Also towards the end there are a lot of "let the camera stay on this character who isn't doing anything" shots which is a bit odd, but this is still a good movie and a must for Kenshin fans. I give it three and a half scars out of five.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Final

After battling Shishio, Kenshin and his friends soon become the target of an old enemy in the final manga arc which never got animated. As a side note it will be funny if they do movies on what did get animated though but they'll need to fix up those plots majorly!

Enishi finally appears!

Anyway, the sets and cast are ok (Cho again is overacting lol). The action bits which all seem to rely on heavy wire work are fantastic again - at least in the small scale fights. Against mobs of enemies there's still that effect of lots of guys "waiting to strike / get hit" which is a shame because I remember specifically that anime Kenshin usually runs to narrow passages to remove that advantage from his enemies. Meanwhile movie Kenshin took a few (more) levels of bullet dodging.

I only have two other gripes with this flick: some quiet scenes go on longer than needed, and there seem to be fan favorite characters thrown in just for the sake of them being there. If that actually happens in the manga, I don't know, but at least two people definitely didn't need to be in this movie.

I still enjoyed this and if you like Kenshin you will too. If you are only here for the action, then there might be a few parts you'll need to be patient in. All up I give it three judgements out of five, and would watch it again... for the fight scenes.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends

The direct continuation from Kyoto Inferno, this film wraps up the "Shishio arc" in the anime quite well, but obviously with big differences in locations and plot due to the time constraints of a two hour movie. This means you don't get to see all of the ten swords fight, which might be a good thing. The few you do see who haven't been introduced with a speaking line in the previous movie are understandably very pale comparisons from their anime counterparts that had episode upon episode of character building. Instead they just become oddly dressed fodder. In exchange they creators just made Shishio a hell of a lot stronger.

Bandages are armor?

As usual, there are some questionable plot points especially when it comes to the government people but these are easily overlooked while you get amazed again by the fast paced, beautiful and brutal fight scenes. I also really like whoever they got as Kenshin's master, he fits the role perfectly. Better than the last movie? Hmm, I think it is about the same - or maybe better by just a little. The very first movie is still the tightest plot wise since they didn't deviate around too much. Not that it matters because you are going to watch all of them in order right? ;)

Highly recommended for Kenshin fans regardless, or fans of Eastern action movies.

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno

The fight scenes are fricking awesome. Let's get that out of the way at the start! :P

Continuing on from his encounter with Jin-E, Kenshin continues to reside at the Kamiya Dojo with the Kenshin-Gumi but just like the anime is soon asked to go stop one Shishio Makoto and his "Ten Swords" from doing terrorist activities as payback for that time the government literally back stabbed him and tried to burn him. In this version though, the Saitou vs Kenshin fight doesn't happen since that sort of occurred in the previous movie and they are now allies.

Did you miss me?

Aoshi appears instead, but is always one step behind Kenshin who he is hunting for similar yet different reasons from the anime. He is somewhat more of a douchebag in this reincarnation. Yes, I didn't think it was possible either. :P Also missing is the "fire flies" scene which has been altered and doesn't have as much of an impact as it did in the anime. To be fair, also missing are the gazillion fillers in the anime that took the time to build the whole Kenshin and Kaoru thing up before that point. Acting wise my only problems are with Cho (over acting) and the wailing child extra. I ... guess he's a good wailer?

There are quite a few minor changes in the story but for the most part it goes how one expects, up until the end that is - where there's a major plot shift to open into the next movie. I didn't find this one as good as the previous movie (only because of the "to be continued" thing) but it's pretty close and very enjoyable - especially to Kenshin fans. You may want to watch the first movie first though if you haven't already, as this is more "The Empire Strikes Back" part of the trilogy. Personally, I can't wait to see the next one! ^_^

TiS: Rurouni Kenshin Returns!

I've just seen news that the next two live action Kenshin movies are coming out this year - HUZZAH!

For those who don't know, Kenshin is a pretty long running manga turned anime turned OVA turned live action movie that my brothers and grandfather have been following over the years. We took turns reading out each subtitled line for my grandpa throughout the animated series and when it finally came to the end was one of the only times I've seen my grandpa cry. That's how awesome it is.

I did do a review of the first live action movie and was thoroughly impressed by how they handled the content. This time it's the Kyoto arc where Kenshin and co. face Shishio and his "Ten Swords". Totally expecting much backstory getting chopped here in exchange for beautiful and vicious combat. Having Aoshi (my favourite character) in there is a bonus! I suspect they'll need to change him around a fair bit though since they totally skipped his intro in the previous movie (which means its not going to end well for him, is it? Damn!). I'm also interested to see just how they do The Legend Ends, a little of which is seen right at the end of the trailer in the link I believe. Best of all it doesn't look like I'll have to wait long as both movies are set to release later this year! With news like that, who couldn't help smiling!?

If you still haven't seen the first Kenshin live-action movie then you can watch if for free here! It's subtitled in English, so even Simcha has no excuse not to watch it. ;P