Prolific Miike’s ‘ Blade’ just doesn’t cut it
About halfway through Takashi Miike’s “Blade of the Immortal,” his 100th film, one immortal samurai says to another, “Death is merciless. But not dying is far worse.”
We feel your pain, brother. After a really promising beginning, Miike’s tale of an immortal samurai helping a young girl gain revenge for her father’s murder sinks into an unendurable, indecipherable mess — and at 2 hours, 21 minutes, feels like a slow death by a thousand cuts.
With films like “Audition” and “Ichii the Killer,” Miike deservedly gained a worldwide reputation as a cutting edge — pun intended — provocateur, hitting his stride in the late 1990s and early 2000s with some distinctive gangster, horror and action films. And he made them at a dizzying rate: eight films each in 2001 and 2002, for example.
Although he has slowed recently, he scored big internationally this decade with a couple of excellent films — “13 Assassins” and “HaraKiri: Death of a Samurai” — that showed maturity and depth without losing his edge.
“Blade of the Immortal,” however, is no such masterpiece. Based on a manga by Hiroaki Samura, it begins with the backstory of the samurai, Manji ( Takuya Kimura), who feels guilt for the death of his kid sister after he failed to protect her. After he lays waste to those who killed her, incurring wounds that leave him near death, a mysterious old nun ( Yoko Yamamoto) places “bloodworms” into his wounds, curing him. As long as those bloodworms stay in his body, Manji is immortal.
Flash forward 50 years. Twelve- year- old Rin ( Hana Sugisaki) watches as her father, the head of a dojo ( martial arts school), is executed by one Anotsu Kagehisa ( Sota Fukushi), and her mother is kidnapped. Anotsu’s motive: to kill all the heads of dojos across Japan and form his own super dojo.
The nun, who by now is 900 years old, appears and guides Rin to employ the services of Manji, scars across his face, with one eye and living in seclusion, to help her with revenge. Is this her way of offering Manji a chance to gain redemption by protecting a girl very much like his sister?
So, it’s set up nicely. Kind of a samurai version of “The Professional,” where Jean Reno turns Natalie Portman into an assassin, right?
But there is little camaraderie or character development. Instead, every few minutes, we meet would- be killers popping out of the woodwork — who are they? — to cross swords with Manji. Every fight scene is grueling and bloody, and to be honest, Manji is a second- rate swordsman. Practically every fight he is in, his opponent lands a death blow. Only his immortality is saving him from his own incompetence.
The final third of the movie is incoherent, with endless limb- slicing sword fights and characters all over the map. Consider that at one point, Rin actually protects Anotsu, the man who murdered her father. Then she hates him again. Say what?
How does a good director like Miike misfire so badly? He needed to add some sense to his sensibility.
The final third of the movie is incoherent, with endless limb- slicing sword fights and characters all over the map.