Director: Takashi
Miike
Notable Cast: Takuya
Kimura, Hana Sugisaki, Sota Fukushi, Hayato Ichihara, Erika Toda, Kazuki
Kitamura, Chiaki Kuriyama, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Ichikawa Ebizo XI, Min
Tanaka, Tsutomu Yamazaki
As it was very well publicized in the US as a marketing ploy
for the film, Blade of the Immortal
marks the 100th film by Takashi Miike (which, for the record and at
the time of this review, he’s now in post-production of his 102nd
film although that’s certainly a debatable number entirely based on the credits
themselves, but I digress) and it’s fitting that this film would mark his
transition into the triple digits. It’s not because Blade of the Immortal is his best film. When a dynamic director
such as this gets to 100 films of such diversity it’s hard to make claims of what’s
his ‘best’ simply due to the ground he has covered, but this film feels like
one that’s decently consumable on a mass scale yet still feels like it pulls
aspects from a lot of his various films for its execution too. It’s like a
greatest hits of style and pieces of his long and illustrious career wrapped
into one massively entertaining spectacle. While that sounds like perhaps the
film is watered down overall, Blade of
the Immortal is not. It’s a film that takes a rather simple core structure
and builds a world of characters and gimmicks around it that never ceases to
entertain and draw the audience into their lives. This is Miike at some of his
most lavishly entertaining and it’s a celebration of his style that serves as a
declaration of his continued momentum towards being one of the most ambitiously
prolific directors ever in any worldly film market.
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| An unlikely, but very likable, team. |
Now I could go on forever about Miike and his talents, but
it’s films like Blade of the Immortal
that cover the basics of just how effective he is at handling off beat
material. Based on the popular manga, Blade
of the Immortal follows Manji, a samurai cursed to never be killed, as a
young woman seeks him out to help her take vengeance on a group of rogue
killers that slayed her father in their aim to combine their talents to rule
the swordsman world. The core of the film is simple, not unlike many classic
action films of the past or samurai films of decades ago with its
world-hardened anti-hero and his young naïve cohort as they battle through
hordes of skilled villains, and in this simplicity is where Miike can layer in
style and execution points to lift the film above many of its peers. However,
it would be lying to not say that the film does suffer slightly from being an
ultimately predictable one in its structure and the formulas that it uses as
its foundation. One can essentially clock on their watch when our scarred Highlander-meets-Sleepy Eyes of Death anti-hero will defeat the baddies. Blade of the Immortal is not a film to
throw in a lot of huge twists at its audience and it prides itself on being an
easy to follow narrative and one that a larger audience can tap into. In that regard,
it accomplishes its task and makes an action film that even non-Miike fans can
easily enjoy.
The style of the film is where it soars though. Blade of the Immortal might be simple in
its structure and narrative flow, but it’s the high energy visuals, the iconic
characters, and strange off beat sense of slight genre bending that allow it to
feel like the Miike greatest hits mentioned above. The action is brilliantly
impressive, combining the ultra-violent bursts of brutality of classic 70s
samurai cinema (ala Lone Wolf and Cub) with the intricate technical
choreography of modern martial arts epics. The characters are instantly
memorable and dynamic mixtures of the manga source material and humane
emotional beats using a balance of nuanced performance, heartwarming chemistry
between our two heroes, and outlandishly sold dialogue keep it moving. This leaves Miike a lot
of ground to work with in his usual defiant genre manners and he blends the
action, drama, fantasy, and dark humor in an instantly addictive concoction
that will have the audience on the edge of their seat, laughing, crying, and
wincing in equal measure. Style is the name of the game in Blade of the Immortal and if that’s what you crave you’re going to
leave a very happy viewer.
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| He can't die, but others are willing to take a stab at it. |
Like many of Takashi Miike’s classic cult cinema works, Blade of the Immortal is going to
instantly have a dedicated following. The sheer execution and charm of the performances,
visuals, action, and brilliant genre shifting easily lift it well above and
beyond its easy to consume and formulaic structures. Blade of the Immortal is
the kind of film that deserves it too. It’s stylish and confident. It’s quirky
and fun. It’s heartfelt and impactful. It’s pure Miike, grounded in the
entertainment of exploitation and highly artistic in that concept.
Blade of the Immortal
slices and dices with the best of modern samurai cinema and has way too much
fun doing it. Bravo.
Written By Matt Reifschneider
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