“Blade Of The Immortal” Is The Action Movie 2017 Has Been Waiting For – REVIEW

October 18, 2017

Hey, FanBros! This is Mellow Marketer here with another article from Da Gryme. Thanks for bringing in the major reviews and for the support from our friends at Fantastic Fest 2017!

After a successful release in Japan, Blade Of The Immortal is finally coming stateside! For those of us manga/anime/samurai/Miike fans, the wait has been brutal. Fortunately, I can tell you that it is worth the wait and that we can give you the skinny on this movie and wet your whistle a bit until it hits U.S. shores. Bottom line: the movie is good, a little long, and relentlessly entertaining. It has an authenticity and purity to motive (see: Violence) to it that rings throughout the movie. This is a “fight movie” in the truest of senses and it is about time a great one is released, in recent memory.

The movie exists in a micro universe where the distance between cities and cultures and people is nary as long as the length of a sword. The special effects are enjoyable(in a classic Miike, hyper-exaggerated fashion) in a style that makes amputations exhilarating, but not gag-inducing. Visually, the movie is a stunner. And the set pieces, while not grand in proportion, add to the feeling that the movie is taking place in a universe for your viewing pleasure. For the most part, it is done extremely well and adds to the flow of the movie.

The acting is great and the choreography is off the chart(not unlike Miike‘s classic, 13 Assassins). I felt myself internally “ooh’ing and aw’ing” at the magnificent fight sequences. This movie is a series of boss battles, where the protagonist must best a slew of enemies, each with a unique power or ability. I could not help but think of a steady stream of video game analogies is the film moves alone. And while I know people will kill me for saying this (sacrilege), this movie is part-Five Deadly Venoms; part-John Wick. The opening scene, which is ridiculously good and over the top, sets the tone for the entire movie. The ever-eccentric Writer/Director , Takashi Miike, has never claimed to be an intellectual, and does not try to beat the audience over the head with overly complex character goals. However, in this movie, he will have you question the moral high-ground of every single character. Which, to be honest, is a clever move to add depth to what is primarily an action film and not an easy one to pull off.

Warning to western movie goers: there isn’t a typical A-to-B-to-C plot device that drives this movie. Instead, you’re getting an amalgamation of different micro-stories that move at their own pace and drive this film to an ultimately satisfying conclusion. The viewer is required to trust the director as they are taken on a journey through multiple story-arcs that inevitably reach a satisfying ending. It’s a unique style, structure and innovation in a modern movie. And to be frank, we’ve really needed that lately.