Jump to content
Hondo's Bar

Live action Blade of the Immortal OMG!


Recommended Posts

Takashi Miike to Direct Kimutaku-Starring ‘Blade of the Immortal’

 

blade-of-the-immortal.jpg

 

The prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) will helm a live-action adaptation of Hiroaki Samura’s long-running manga ‘Blade of the Immortal,’ published from June 25, 1993, to December 25, 2012.

 

Takuya Kimura (Space Battleship Yamato) a.k.a. Kimutaku, a member of the pop group SMAP, will play the lead character Manji, a Tokugawa-era samurai who is cursed with an immortality touch and has to kill 1,000 evil people to lift a curse and regain his mortality.

 

‘Blade of the Immortal’ is published in North America by Dark Horse Comics. which plans to rerelease it in omnibus form. The manga’s 30 volumes won the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material in 2000. The neo period drama manga saw a mediocre television anime adaptation by Studio Bee Train in 2008.

 

hiroaki-samura-manga.jpg

 

The 2017’s film will start production in November 2015. I have a great expectation of kimutaku. Miike is in his element here. This should be good.

 

http://filmcutting.com/takashi-miike-to-direct-kimutaku-starring-blade-of-the-immortal/

 

Totally late to the party here, but WHAT?! Live action Blade of the Immortal!? Takashi Miike?! AHHHHHH!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

So, caught this tonight at the only theater that was showing it in Miami (and on the second to last night it'll be here) and was not disappointed. Man, was this one BLOODY. Texted Nick right after that it shoulda been called "Blade of the Immortal: All the Major Fights: The Movie." Fuck.

 

The first hour and 15 minutes was straight out of the manga. Edited for time, of course, and quickly getting to the bloody battles. The last hour and 15 (yes, it's 2 and a half hours long) took its liberties.

 

Is it perfect? No. There were tons of storylines that were omitted, because of time (and understandably so) and that was a real travesty. Some of the relationships just couldn't get fleshed out. Miike was careful, though, to not let the lack of relationship building effect the reaction of characters when someone died (and boy was there death. Bloody, bloody death). For example, when someone important died in the manga (not gonna say who as not to spoil), the reaction of their friend was big. In the film, since their friendship wasn't fleshed out, there really was no reaction at all. Which was smart. Manji and Rin were great together, though, and the girl that played Rin absolutely crushes it. 

 

Really, it was one of the better adapted manga I've seen in a while, but probably could have done better just being stretched out into 3 films. Having said all that: the fucking fight scenes alone are worth the ticket price. Jesus fucking Christ. Did I mention it was bloody? As a samurai flick alone it's fucking awesome!

 

Overall, I give it a B-, but WILL BE buying the Blu to watch those fights again and again. Hopefully, we get a director's cut with tons more footage.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...