Rurouni Kenshin: The Final

[Drunk Monk]

This is the 4th installment of a pentalogy based on a manga. I've long heard tell of this franchise as being exceptional, and I wanted to start at the beginning, but part 4 here came up on Netflix, probably due to the pandemic affecting its box office earlier this year. Part 5 already came out too. But I might get a shot at the Action Director, Kenji Tanigaki, so I figured I'd better give it a peep.

It's long - Bollywood long - 2 hr 18 min. It took me three nights. 

It's also a loving homage to classic chanbara - beautifully framed, thoughtfully composed scenes, lots of snow, rain, ash, etc., floating through to give depth. 

There's a lot of backstory - 3 movies worth - and a lot of characters. Sometimes, I think the film was flashing back to arcs in the previous films, filling out the length. I was following it until a point when it just got to be too much and I kinda gave up. Too many characters to track. Some great villains with kick ass weapons. 

But let's talk about those sword fights. Killer sword fights. The action is next level. It's sped up and there's a ton of wire work, but ultimately Tanigaki achieves something fresh. These are comic book samurai/ronin fights, sanguineous and dynamic, very compelling. I rather enjoyed them.

DOOM recommended but it might be a fast forward to the fight scenes flick if you don't have 2+ hours to kill.

I definitely want to see the rest of the series now.

[Drunk Monk]

Rurouni Kenshin: The beginning



Part 5 - or maybe it’s 1 - came up on Netflix. It’s got great sword fights (and you know my love of those) but it’s longwinded - 2 hr 18 min or so - and it expounds on a story arc told in the previous chapter so there’s not much suspense. We know where it’s going to go. 

But still, it has its beauty. There’s a middle act where the protag tries to lead a normal live and finds some happiness in the mundane, but as karma has it, gets sucked in again. This middle act is way too long. Get back to the sword fights already. And there an epilogue after that. Then one more battle. 

Again, the choreo is on point. Some lovely sword play with healthy sanguineous dollops. I like the action sensibility here even with all the cgi blood. It opens with a great fight, followed by a few more good action sequences, then gets bogged down in the aforementioned hiding arc. But those sword fights are mighty satisfying. Might just fast forward to the fight scenes.

I’m confused about the other previous films. I want to see them now, not so much to fill in the story, more so to see if the sword fights are all this good.

DOOM recommended.

[Drunk Monk]

Rurouni Kenshin: Origins

How is this different than the beginning? Well, it’s a different story (except for his turning point from assassin to dogooder - might even be the same scene. I can’t remember.

This story involves spiderweb opium and a gattling gun. There’s a street fighter with spiky hair in a headband and a really big sword. There’s a masked villain. 

The choreo was more comic book but this did come from a manga. 2 swordsmen take on 250. It’s what DM & the Yeti is like only in a movie.

It gets a bit long winded with lots of endings, but still a satisfactory chanbara. 

I’d like to see all of these in order someday because I’ve seen them so sideways that the over arching story is lost on me. 

D00M recommended - lots of sword fights! 

Netflix.