Finally the long-awaited live action film has been released in Manila. This movie was released in Japan in August of this year, and so many Filipino fans have been waiting for it to come to our shores. The anime adaptation (then called Samurai X) gained so much popularity here, that it was run and rerun on TV several times over. If you ever were a follower of this series, you must not miss the live action movie! It's absolutely worth the wait.
It's a nearly perfect adaptation. From the characters, the plot, the nuances and the overall atmosphere of the story-line; it strove to be as faithful to the original as possible and I really appreciate this fact. It makes me want to see the entire anime series from start to finish all over again. The fight scenes were really cool, not exaggerated or spoiled by too much obvious computer magic. I'm glad they managed to show the variety of fighting styles that were such a big deal in the anime version, especially Kenshin's Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu (how quickly he moves, etc., it was really exciting to see it). The portrayals were also as good as I hoped; the actors played their parts well. There were even a good number of comedic moments which the original versions had plenty of. Takeru Sato was great as Kenshin; I think it quite suited him to play the part. He was able to show the many sides of Kenshin's complex tormented character - torn between his nature as a killer, and his deep-seated yearning for peace and belonging.
My favorite fight scenes: the fight between Kenshin and Gein (the guy with the guns and the dagger), the fight scene between Kenshin and Jine (the one who pretended to be Battousai), and the fight between Sanosuke and Inui (the priest-type fist-fighter). Those are just my favorites, but generally all the fight scenes were thrilling and bloody and splendid. The only thing I would have wanted to see more of, really, was Saito (the samurai-turned-police chief) since in the anime he really had a lot to do with Kenshin's life. But I suppose the film would have gone a little too long if even more character development was expounded upon. As it is, I personally think it's perfectly awesome. Obviously, I'm a fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment