Blade of the Immortal (4 Stars)

Takashi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal (2017) adapts Hiroaki Samura’s long running manga into a bleak, violent jidaigeki that uses genre spectacle to question the value of revenge, immortality and moral absolutism.

The film opens in late Edo period Japan. Manji is introduced as a feared samurai whose life has been defined by killing. In the past, he slaughtered a group of men he believed to be criminals, only to discover that they were honorable samurai defending their lord. When Manji realizes his mistake, he also understands that his actions have destroyed any claim he had to righteousness. His sister Machi, horrified by what he has become, has become nad with grief. Shortly afterward, she is murdered by bandits, leaving Manji broken and suicidal.

Manji attempts to end his life, but his death wish is interrupted by Yaobikuni, an ancient crone who possesses supernatural powers. She infects Manji with kessen-chu, blood worms that regenerate his body and make him effectively immortal. Any wound heals, even decapitation. Yaobikuni condemns Manji to live until he has atoned for his sins by killing one thousand evil men. Immortality, rather than a gift, becomes a punishment that forces him to endure endless pain and moral compromise.

50 years later, Manji is living as a wandering outcast, hated and feared. His path crosses with Rin Asano, a teenage girl whose parents were brutally murdered by the Itto-ryu, a radical sword school led by the charismatic and fanatical Anotsu Kagehisa. Anotsu seeks to overthrow the established dojo system, which he sees as corrupt, stagnant and tied to feudal hypocrisy. His methods are extreme; he annihilates rival schools, including Rin’s family dojo, in order to force a violent rebirth of the martial world.

Rin asks Manji to become her bodyguard and executioner, promising to end her own life once her revenge is complete. Manji accepts, because Rin looks identical to his sister Machi. He even calls her Machi at first. Together they hunt the members of the Itto-ryu. Their journey is episodic and brutal, with each confrontation revealing different shades of cruelty, idealism and despair. Manji’s immortality allows Miike to stage extreme violence; limbs are severed, bodies impaled and Manji himself is repeatedly torn apart, only to regenerate. The spectacle emphasizes suffering rather than power fantasy.

As the story progresses, the line between good and evil becomes increasingly blurred. Some Itto-ryu members are sadistic killers, others are tragic figures driven by loyalty or survival. Anotsu himself is not portrayed as a simple villain. He genuinely believes that only destruction can clear the way for progress, even if it means becoming a monster. Parallel to this conflict, government agents and rival factions attempt to manipulate both Anotsu and Manji for political ends, suggesting that institutional violence is as ruthless as personal vengeance.

Rin grows increasingly traumatized by the bloodshed carried out in her name. Manji, despite his vow, tries to protect her from becoming consumed by hatred. In the climactic battles, alliances collapse and nearly all major characters meet violent ends. Manji finally reaches the symbolic threshold of killing one thousand evil men, though the exact morality of that number is left deliberately ambiguous. Rin ultimately abandons her quest for revenge, choosing life over endless hatred. Manji, having guided her away from the path that destroyed him, is released from his immortality. He walks away alone, mortal once more, carrying the weight of his memories.

Miike uses Blade of the Immortal to dismantle romantic ideas of the samurai, revenge narratives and even immortality itself. Violence in the film is relentless and ugly; it is meant to exhaust the viewer rather than thrill them. By making Manji immortal, Miike removes the heroic stakes usually associated with sword fights. Pain has no release through death, and killing solves nothing permanently.

The central message is that revenge is a self-perpetuating cycle that consumes both victim and perpetrator. Rin’s journey demonstrates how easily moral certainty turns into dehumanization. Anotsu’s ideology, though grounded in real social decay, becomes monstrous once it justifies limitless slaughter. Miike refuses to offer a clean moral hierarchy; institutions, rebels and lone warriors all participate in the same machinery of violence.

Immortality functions as a metaphor for historical and personal guilt. Manji cannot escape his past through death; he must live with it, confront it and guide the next generation away from repeating it. Redemption, in Miike’s view, does not come from righteous killing but from breaking the cycle and choosing compassion over ideology.

In the end, Blade of the Immortal argues that progress and honour built on blood are hollow. True change is quiet, painful and often invisible. By letting Rin live and allowing Manji to become mortal again, Miike suggests that accepting fragility and moral uncertainty is the only way out of endless violence.

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Audition (4 Stars)

"Audition" is a film that I like, but it's not a film that I can watch often. Today is the fourth time I've watched it, so it fits my definition of a good film: "A good film is a film I want to watch at least three times". I was excited when I found out it was being shown in the cinema this week. I had to go!

Aoyama has been raising his son as a single parent since the death of his wife seven years ago. He thinks it's time to move on. He wants to find a new wife, but he doesn't know how to go about it. The film was made in 1999, before there were dating apps. Together with a friend, he devises a trick. They interview women for the leading role in a film. They don't intend to make the film. They're just using it as a strategy to find a suitable woman for Aoyama.

He finds a woman. Or does she find him? They go on a romantic weekend and have sex, but when Aoyama wakes up she's gone. He searches for her in vain. He finds people who know her, but none of them know where she lives. But she knows where Aoyama lives, and when the time is right she breaks into his house.

The film is a slow burner. For the first hour very little happens. This builds up the suspense towards the horrific conclusion. I wanted to look away, but I gripped my seat and gazed at the screen. It's a film that nobody can forget.

First Love (5 Stars)

When I tell people that I like Japanese films, the usual reaction is, "Oh, so you like Takashi Miike?" That's understandable. He's the best known Japanese director among younger film fans. Older fans might think of Akira Kurosawa first. In actual fact, I don't like Takashi Miike. I might like some individual films of his, but I've seen a lot of his films, and there were more that I disliked. "Ichi the Killer" is one of the few films that I turned off without watching it to the end. I bought the DVD about 15 years ago, and it's still lying on my shelf unwatched, apart from the first half hour. I can even remember buying it at Asda Small Heath, from the DVD department which has now become an optician's. That's how much of an impression it made on me.

"First Love", fortunately, is one of his best films. It begins with a young boxer called Leo training, but this is no "Rocky". We see him in two fights. He wins the first, and then he collapses in the second after what is considered to be a light punch. The doctor tells him that he has a brain tumour at the base of the skull, and he has to quit boxing.

But this is the beginning of his life.

While walking home, feeling depressed, he sees a young woman running away from a man. He knocks the man unconscious with a single punch. He checks the man's pockets (not something I'd do after a fight) and finds a police badge. That would have made me walk away from the woman, but he talks to her. Her name is Monica, she's a prostitute, and she says that the policeman had hired her for the whole night. She wasn't running away from the policeman, she was running from a vision of her dead father. She's also a heroin addict. There are so many reasons why Leo should run home and forget her, but when is love ever sensible? Especially first love.

Now the story gets complex. Six bags of heroin were being stored overnight in the apartment of  Yasu, Monica's pimp. It was due to be picked up in the morning by a Yakuza member. Another Yakuza member called Kase wanted to steal the heroin and sell it to Otomo, a corrupt policeman, blaming the theft on Monica. Otomo is the one who hired Monica, and he intended to kill her and hide the body. Kase expects the apartment to be empty, but Yasu is at home. He steals the heroin and kills Yasu, but Monica is still alive and on the run. He tells his boss that Yasu has obviously been killed by the Chinese Triad. This leads to a gang war, with Leo and Monica caught in the middle.

What can Monica see?

Ugh! A hallucination like that would terrify me as well.

The film has moral overtones. The Yakuza boss, Gondo, sees the Yakuza as a continuation of the noble Samurai tradition. Chiachi, a Triad enforcer, thinks in a similar way. She says that the Triad is bound to uphold the ideals of Confucianism. They both stand in opposition to younger Yakuza like Kase who have no honour and only want to gain wealth. Chiachi also despises Otomo for being corrupt and not fulfilling his duty.

The final three-way battle between the Yakuza, the Triad and the police is over-the-top. While the others use guns, Gondo proudly steps into battle brandishing a sword. The inclusion of a one-armed Chinese swordsman called Wang is totally irrelevant to the plot, but it adds yet another amazing fight scene.

The film is insane, but I say that as a compliment. The critics seem to get it, based on the 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Some reviewers compare "First Love" with Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill", but I don't think the comparison fits. "Kill Bill" has a logical progression that "First Love" lacks.

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Yakuza Apocalypse (2 Stars)

I don't even want to write about this film. I have mixed feelings about the director Takashi Miike. He's made some brilliant films, but he's also made some very bad films. For the first hour this film was excellent. Then it turned silly in the second hour. At the end it wasn't just silly, it was bad. It's as if the director was trying to see how much he could get away with. He has a lot of fans, and he was trying to see how much his fans would put up with. I'm not a fan, so my tolerance is low.

Kamura is the yakuza boss in an unnamed town. The members of his gang consider him to be too soft. He doesn't allow them to hurt civilians. There are repeated attempts to overthrow him, but they fail. Kamura is a vampire, and bullets can't hurt him. His true nature is only known to one man, a restaurant owner who keeps men locked up for him to feed on.

Finally one of Kamura's female captains (I don't think she's named) deduces that he's immortal, and she brings in help from outside, a pair of vampire slayers. They kill Kamura, but before he dies he bites his second-in-command, Kageyama, turning him into a vampire. Kamura had always been discreet about being a vampire, but Kageyama is the opposite. He bites victim after victim, turning the whole town into vampires. The only ones left over are the yakuza, because yakuza blood tastes bad.

Now it starts getting silly. The yakuza captain sees problems for her gang, because everyone has become vampires and there are no civilians left to charge protection money. She plants seeds in a greenhouse and grows babies to replace the civilians.

The vampire hunters summon a third member of their group to handle the vampires in the town. It's a giant kung-fu fighting frog. When he's finally defeated, an even bigger frog rises from the ground, breathing fire and threatening to destroy the world.

And the film ends on a cliff-hanger. I wouldn't mind if a sequel were promised, but no sequel is in sight. The film is just left open-ended. That's awful.

At first I felt tempted to give the film only one star, but it deserves an extra star to acknowledge how good the first half is. Nevertheless, my advice is to stay away from "Yakuza Apocalypse". I was disappointed, and you'll be disappointed as well.

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First Love (5 Stars)

This is the 39th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

I don't understand Quentin Tarantino. He says that he'll only make ten films, because directors get worse as they get older, and they'll only be remembered for their most recent bad films. That's utter nonsense! Look at Takashi Miike. This is his 103rd film, and he's still making excellent films. I'd say that he's improving with age, because I don't like the films that he made in the 1990's.

Leo is a young, successful boxer who's thrown into a world beyond his imagination. He rescues a prostitute who's running away from a policeman, not knowing what he's getting himself into. Two corrupt policeman have a plan to steal drugs from a Japanese gang. The prostitute, Monica, lives with the gang, so a policeman has hired her services all night in order to set her up as the thief. One of the gang members is unexpectedly in the house, and the other policeman shoots him. A Chinese gang is blamed for the attack.

This leads to an all-out war between Japanese gangs, Chinese gangs and the police, with Leo caught in the middle. He's fallen in love with Monica, and he'll do anything to protect her from harm.

The final scenes are the total insanity that we're used to from Takashi Miike. I'm glad he didn't stop after ten films.

Lesson of Evil (5 Stars)

In the last few years we've got used to schoolboys running amok and shooting their classmates. It makes a refreshing change to see a film about a teacher who shoots the schoolchildren.

I had difficulty understanding the teacher's motivation, but maybe he doesn't have any. I'll know more after I watch it again. This is a must-have in my Blu-ray collection, so I'll be buying and watching it shortly after the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival finishes. Takashi Miike's films are growing ever more insane as he gets older.

In America the film is called "Lesson of the Evil". Is there a reason for it to be in bad English?

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Audition (4 Stars)

This is probably Takashi Miike's best known film. I already have the film on DVD, but I couldn't resist the temptation to see it on the big screen.

Although it's not the goriest film ever made, the film has scenes so horrific that the audience was groaning. It was enough to give me a queasy feeling in my stomach, even though I've seen it twice before.

So what's the plot? It's a traditional love story, Japanese style.

Boy meets girl.

The boy falls in love.

The girl is a psychopath.

Girl tortures boy.

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Blade of the Immortal (5 Stars)

This is the tenth film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

This is Takashi Miike's 100th film, and it's a masterpiece!

Beneath the excessive blood-letting there are serious questions asked. For the Japanese honour is important. A good person wants to do what is right. But consider the following situation:

Someone has killed your father, so you vow revenge. That's good, isn't it? You're righting a wrong that's been done.

But then you find out the man who killed your father killed him to get revenge for your father killing his father. In that case you're doing wrong by supporting your father's evil action.

Or maybe your father didn't do evil after all. Maybe he killed the man to get revenge for him killing his father, your grandfather. That would make your actions good again. Unless, of course, your grandfather was killed to get revenge for someone he had killed.

The initial act of evil can be lost in the course of generations. One act of revenge leads to another. How can you be certain if you're doing right or wrong?

This is a magnificent film, the best I've seen that was made by Takashi Miike.

Happiness of the Katakuris (4 Stars)

This film, directed by Takashi Miike in 2001, is a remake of the Korean film "The Quiet Family". It's a unique film for the eccentric director. It's the only comedy he's made, and it's also his only musical. The random songs remind me of Bollywood films rather than American musicals. They start at the least expected moments, usually dealing with subjects like death and murder.

After working for years as a shoe salesman Masao Katakuri is fired, and his severance pay is just enough for him to buy a guest house in a remote area. He hopes that one day a main road will be built close to the house, but if it doesn't happen he's facing bankruptcy. He runs the guest house as a family business with his wife, his father, his two children. Also living in the house are his granddaughter and his dog Pochi. Don't forget the dog, he's important to the story!

The guest house's first few guests all die, either by suicide or accidental deaths. Masao doesn't want to call the police, because he thinks that bad publicity will keep people away from his guest house. Instead of this he persuades his family to bury the bodies. The only person who suspects anything is Richard Sagawa, a con man who is attempting to marry Masao's daughter Shizue. But he can't inform the police, because he's a wanted criminal.

As a rather absurd comedy it's enjoyable. I find the claymation sequences out of place, although other reviewers seem to like them.

The poster that I've used above is misleading. The film has nothing at all to do with "Dawn of the Dead". The dead bodies don't really come back to life. They just jump out of their graves to take part in the musical numbers. After that they go back to rest.

Audition (4 Stars)

All words are lies. Pain doesn't lie.

Aoyama, 42, is the producer in a film company. He's bringing up his son alone after the death of his wife. He wants to find a new wife, but due to his heavy work load he doesn't have the time. One of his colleagues makes a suggestion. He should advertise a new film and invite young women to audition for the main role. The film will never be made, it's just a way for him to get to know women. Out of a hundred applications he invites 30 women for the auditions, but he's already picked out one woman, Asami, because of an interesting essay accompanying her application. As hoped for, she also shows interest in him, and a romance develops. They go to a hotel, but she disappears in the middle of the night, and Aoyama is unable to find her. She no longer answers her phone, and all the details she's given him about home and business contact addresses turn out to be lies. But Asami knows where to find him. She visits him when he least expects it, and she tortures him with sadistic pleasure.

A girl I used to know once shared with me her wisdom on sadomasochism: "If a man says he enjoys pain, it means I'm not hitting him hard enough". In "Audition" Asami pushes sadism to the extreme. Aoyama is not a masochist, as far as we can tell, but even if he were she takes it too far. Director Takashi Miike shows us the connection between pleasure and pain in no uncertain terms. One of Asami's past victims is shown sitting in his wheelchair masturbating while he thinks of her.

This is an extreme film, and very difficult to watch, even though the torture scene is relatively short. It's the stuff that nightmares are made of. Some people will love it, while others will find it disgusting. I enjoyed it. But I wouldn't want to be in Aoyama's place.

Hara-Kiri (4 Stars)

My regular readers might remember my review of "Silver" in May. Those who don't can read it now. I complained about Takashi Miike's films. Everyone tells me how great he is and I really must watch his films, so I do, and I'm disappointed every time. Most people who like Japanese films name him first, even though Sion Sono is far more skilled as a director, making films with deeper meanings and more interesting characters. I don't even know why I decided to watch "Hara-Kiri" today. But I did, and I'm glad. Finally I've found a film by Takashi Miike that I like!

This film is a contrast to Takashi Miike's previous film, "13 Assassins". That film showed how honorable it is to be a samurai, especially in days when honour is no longer valued. This film suggests that samurai honour is a farce, something that people of the samurai caste hold to out of principle, even though it has no meaning.

Motome is a young man who is born into a samurai family in the early 17th Century. It's a time of peace, and although he is given a sword he never uses it. He becomes a peaceful scholar and teacher. When his wife and son become ill he doesn't have enough money to pay for a doctor. He hears that other samurai have made money from "suicide bluffs". They go to a rich lord and ask for permission to commit suicide in their courtyard, even though they have no intention of killing themselves. They hope the lord will talk them out of it and give a small amount of money out of charity. Motome goes to the estate of the Ii clan to carry out a suicide bluff, but it doesn't turn out as he expects.

This is a very different film to what I have previously seen from Takashi Miike. There is very little violence, and an absence of the gore that he uses in films like "Ichi the Killer". On the one hand it's a love story, the story of Motome and his wife Miho. On the other hand it's a philosophical film, with extended discussions on the values of life as a samurai. This is a beautiful film, and I admit I had tears in my eyes towards the end. Maybe I should check out more films by Takashi Miike. Maybe.

Silver (1 Star)

Have you ever watched a film and felt so empty afterwards that you feel you've just wasted 90 minutes of your life?

Jun Shirogane goes to America to take part in a karate competition. She wins first place. When she returns home to Japan she finds out that her whole family has been slaughtered by a gang called the Viper's Nest. An ex-lover hires her into a secret organisation that deals with criminals "outside of the law". He promises her a chance for revenge if she carries out other missions first. For her cover she becomes a professional wrestler and adopts the name Jun Silver.

Her first mission is to retrieve the client list and photos of a dominatrix who specialises in rich and famous customers. "I have yakuza bosses among my clients. It's hard being a dominatrix". After this she is contronted by Four (yes, that's his name), an assassin hired to kill her by the Viper's Nest. Four takes his job so seriously that he protects her from anyone else who is trying to kill her.

Let's stop there. I'm a glutton for punishment. I keep returning to films directed by Takashi Miike, hoping to enjoy them, but I never do. So many people praise him that I tell myself he must be good, but I'm disappointed every time. This film does everything wrong, but the worst part is the cliffhanger ending. It looks like the studio's budget ran out before the film was finished. It ends in the middle of a gun fight, and Jun doesn't even know who is attacking her. What sort of rubbish is that? This rates as one of the worst films I've ever seen.

13 Assassins (3½ Stars)

The film takes place in Japan at the end of the Samurai era, probably around 1840. The old ways of honour and loyalty are dying. Where noble men once fought battles of skill with swords, now any unskilled buffoon can buy a gun to shoot his enemies. Against this background the corrupt and sadistic young man Naritsugu inherits the leadership of the shogun from his father. This causes a rift among the samurai. Half say that they should follow him regardless of his moral qualities because it's the "shogun way". The other half want to oppose him, though they prefer to do this by assassination, because they agree that he is the rightful leader as long as he lives.

This is a film that I'd heard a lot about. It's a remake of a 1963 film with the same name, but it borrows more of its style from the 1954 film "Seven Samurai". The film is advertised as having the longest battle scene ever, lasting 45 minutes. And Takashi Miike is one of Japan's best directors.

Unfortunately I had difficulty relating to the film. Everything in the first 90 minutes was a build up to the final battle (which only lasted 30 minutes, not 45 as advertised). For me it was painfully slow. Long discussions about honour and morality, no action. I also found that there were too many assassins to remember. All 13 were introduced by name, but as a typical viewer I could only remember the names and personalities of about five of them. The rest were a blur, especially in the final battle.

The strength of the film is the final battle, of course. If I were rating that scene alone I would give it at least 4 stars, maybe more. The rest of the film doesn't rise above 2 stars. I'll be generous and average it at 3½ stars. I do have to point out that other reviewers have rated this film highly, so if you're a fan of samurai epics check it out. And if you like it more than I do, leave a comment.

Click here to view the trailer.