Rurouni Kenshin : Kyoto Inferno Review
I have been a huge Kenshin fan since my teenage years after stumbling across the anime on a random anime sharing site. I came to love the series even more after reading the manga. The first movie, released 2 years ago was, in my opinion, the best live action adaptation of an anime series to date. I have heard that Death Note, which Tatsuya Fujiwara also stars in is good but I haven't seen it personally.
The first movie stayed truthful to the original series whilst mostly avoiding the cheesy scenes, out of place setting and awkward dialogue that most live adaptations suffer from. It still blows my mind that many Kenshin fans are UNAWARE that the film was released and were doubly shocked to find out that a sequel is now hitting the big screen in Japan.
The second movie 'Rurouni Kenshin : Kyoto Inferno', otherwise known as るろうに剣心 京都大火編 blows away all other competition and builds upon what made the first movie so great.
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Costume Design
Each lead character is instantly recognisable and keeps all of their unique physical characteristics while still staying appropriate to the era setting. I was sceptical of how Shishio would look in a live action movie but the make-up staff did a fantastic job of transforming Tatsuya into the scarred warrior seen above, he is barely recognisable! Even the hairstyles are on form, Saito's bangs and Sawagejo's dynamic punk rock style hair feature prominently yet don't look ridiculous. This is where other live action movies often fail, they try too hard to mimic the original drawings that it just looks ridiculous, they got the balance just right here.
Clear Cut Action
One aspect I loved from the first movie was the clarity of the action sequences. I would go "Wow! That's THAT move!"They do a fantastic job of making the combat sequences fast paced and incredibly full of impact, yet you never lose track of where the lead characters are and can see every blow connect. There is minimal shaky cam and flashy transitions, the strikes flow from start to finish all in sequence. As soon as I saw the initial bandit fight my adrenaline was pumping and ready to see the next scene.
The characters unique fighting styles are all clearly evident with the appropriate weapons and stances.
Minimal wire work is used, so hopefully there will be no out of place moments in the sequel. In the first movie there was an awkward moment where Saito 'launched' at a chandelier...thankfully they have learnt not repeat it!
Again, the great costume design helps to set the main characters apart from the fodder.
Kyoto Arc Coverage
Kyoto Inferno manages to detail the events of roughly half of the Shishio story, jumping from one plot point to another without losing coherency. At some times they may feel a little unrelated, but each moment is covered in enough detail to ensure that are the key plot points link together and that the iconic scenes are all shown. Some content has necessarily been cut but that is inevitable for a live action movie covering such a wide range of source material. The movie was 2 and a half hours but it flew by ridiculously fast, I never felt that the plot was dragging at any point, rather it was driving forward to progress the story.
Focal Battles
Every key character has their moment to shine, and each battle has their own unique flavour. The battle with Sojiro is very deliberately paced, with lightning speed clashes, followed by brief pauses. Whereas Sewagejo Cho's (aka. the sword hunter) fight is brutal and rough, just like his persona. This means that each fight does not feel repetitive despite the focus on swordplay.
In fact I had completely forgotten about Sewagejo's character until I saw his punk rock hair do swagger onto the screen, he received little spotlight during the advertising but I really enjoyed his scenes. He has a generic yanki attitude but he was portrayed very well. Even keeping his one eye closed squint quirk that opens during the excitement of battle. Small touches like this are what made the movie complete.
Aoshi's Abridgement
This is pretty much my only complaint about this movie, yet I can understand why it needed to occur. If you are familiar with the Kenshin story, you would have noticed that Aoshi's character was completely omitted. His entire motivation for fighting Kenshin, the loss of his friends, was completely non existent. However since he has a vital role in the later events of the series the film makers made the wise decision to reintroduce him into this movie.
Aoshi is one of my favourite characters from the manga, he is loyal, strong and you can empathise with his ideals. His character design in the movie is fantastic, instantly recognisable. Yet it is hard to sympathise with this version of Aoshi, he is a brutal, merciless warrior who seeks to overcome Kenshin simply due to his stature as the strongest warrior of times past. There is no link between Aoshi's loss of his comrades and the battle against Kenshin as there was in the original story. Instead he is somewhat one dimensional, solely caring about finding Kenshin and nothing else, no matter who stands in his way.
His battles are some of my favourites, I will not give the details in order to avoid spoilers but they are ruthless and highlight his ability to fight using numerous styles. I am keen to see how his battles and quest to fight Kenshin unfold in the upcoming sequel. I just hope that they develop his character more so that we can care about him rather than just see him as a worthy challenger.
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