This week, Takashi Miike is celebrating the release of his 100th film his adaptation of Hiroaki Samura’s “Blade of the Immortal”. He is like a samurai filmmaker, brave and unafraid. His skills are demonstrated in each frame of this mesmerizing, themed story, untamed carnage. There seemed to be a dip in his popularity abroad after the spikes from “Ichi the Killer” and “Audition”, but he hasn’t lost his craftsman skills. “Blade of the Immortal“ is one of those masterpieces in which the director’s life experiences fuel ate the creation of the film. In a way it an endless cycle of a man living a life devoid of desire. There is no suggestion to the fact that Miike should take a break from filmmaking, the scene energy provokes the opposite, but what Miike did is he guided the film into a more skilled direction.
“Blade of the Immortal” follows the life of Manji, a Samurai (played by Takuya Kimura) who is gifted with the burden of immortality. Having lived for centuries, he had no choice but to mourn the loss of the only individual he deeply cared for. All that was left to him was the code of honor he was no longer capable of following. And although his life might seem enticing, everyone he has ever cared about has died before him which places him closer to the way fiction describes ghosts. Simply put, he is a person filled with regret and is being punished with immortality. But with the arrival of Rin Asano (Hana Sugisaki), who is later found by Manji after her parents are killed by a group of assassins planning to destroy the Samurai way, he is finally given hope.
The last sentence of the text is the hinge of the narrative for “Blade of the Immortal.” Kagehisa Anotsu (the almost movie stealer Sota Fukushi), the man who leads the group of assassins that murdered Rin’s father is from a different technique of swordsmanship and indicates a more savage and brutal future for the samurai. Combat forms come to dominate for the first time in “Blade of The Immortal,” particularly as other styles surface and the politics of warring factions of schools becomes paramount. Manji is an exponent of an ancient form and technique, which again feels like a style where only a filmmaker of 100 films would know how to do it.
“Blade of the Immortal,” as expected, also references schemes and politics, but mostly indulges in blood and gore. For the first time in a while, this is Mike deep into his gory violent tendencies of the 90s and the 00s. This is highly episodic and utilizes a lot of different parts which is influenced by the fact that it is based on a manga that was published for 30 volumes. “Blade of the Immortal” is essentially comprised of a collection of one-on-one bouts between Manji and the members in Anotsu’s assassin squad. For at least the first hour, he goes up against the team of Anotsu’s assassins. Each possess exaggerated aspects such as supernatural abilities, geysers of blood, and wire based warfare. They are clearly over the top. Mike considers these commonplace, and seems to be a Manji specialty. Indeed, there are many astonishing fight sequences that Mike manages to make pure eye candy. He impressively succeeds in making all these individual fights distinctly unforgettable. One of them shares a key trait with Manji while the other a remorseful tear after she kills. The last one embodies a nightmare with human body parts strapped onto him. Mike’s accelerated combat in “Blade of the Immortal” leads to the multiple enemy battle with the inevitable rivers of blood. In “Blade of the Immortal,” there are countless deaths, mostly by avalanching limbs while hundreds of people perish.
The action is visibly brutal in the movie from beginning to end. It is, however, hard to sit through it for over two and a half hours; even the most devoted samurai fans will find it challenging. It does not help that ‘Blade’ is somewhat a convoluted story. New enemies and possible allies are introduced much too late than necessary. The addition of these new elements makes one wish the story was reaching its conclusion instead of setting off on a new adventure. Kimura’s portrayal of the character starts feeling monotonous instead of varied. It is not just his repetition of the same emotions which is responsible; some of the cast members simply over shine him. For this particular movie, he did not manage to capture the audience’s attention, amid the film’s achingly overdrawn run time.
Young Mike, who is 56 years old but worked on this project at what was his century mark, managed to achieve the mergeable balance of experience and childlike wonder Mike is known for. Not many people would challenge the genius of Takashi Mike. I just hope he tackles another 100 films and proves me right.
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