Movie Review – Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Roman Tan (Samurai X) (2012)
Rurouni Kenshin (2012) achieves the impossible by being a near-perfect live action adaptation of a famous manga/anime that will have diehard fans crying tears of joy while newcomers will certainly be sucked into the wonderfully paced narrative that features mostly fully rounded colourful characters and exquisitely shot action sequences. At the same time, the movie pushes its unabashed message of peace and non-violence forward in almost every scene yet director/writer Keishi Ohtomo manages to make it seem organic, as if naturally flowing from the characters and their predicaments rather than needlessly bashing viewers with the moral sledgehammer.
Update – Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2012)
It’s been a few months since I last posted a blog entry about the upcoming Rurouni Kenshin live action adaptation that is due in Japanese cinemas this August 25, 2012. Here is the latest 60 second television advertisement along with the full trailer that features new footage not seen in the teaser released at the beginning of the year. Diehard Kenshin fans will no doubt pick up a lot of shots/scenes that seem directly ripped from the manga/anime so here’s hoping the final product is worthy.
Movie Preview – One to Watch For…
Well, last year long suffering anime fans were blessed with the more or less successful reboot of Space Battleship Yamato through the high-budget live action movie starring JDRAMA king, Takuya Kimura. Whatever one thinks of that film the fact remains that anime has always been a compelling source for live-action shows or movies although their quality vacillates wildly from utter junk to cult classics. This year there’s yet another anime favourite that is being translated to the silver screen and no, I’m not talking about the Starz network and Sam Raimi’s Western adaptation of Noir.
