Movie: Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno/The Legend Ends Teaser Trailer (2014) - Japanese Live Action HD

When the first Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Movie came out, I arrived just a few minutes before the showing time that I wanted and couldn't get in owing to the long line of people who wanted to see it.  And I almost missed the next showing because of a lot of people also missed the previous show and bought tickets for the next one instead.

Today, I decided that I won't let that happen again so I came to see the first showing schedule of the movie.  I made it, and I even had time to spare, so I got to watch a lot of commercials.  The upper section had a lot of people, but it wasn't packed, so there were empty seats on both my sides.  Over the duration of the movie there were a few laughs here and there, some exclamation over something but the audience was pretty quiet for the most part. I didn't see a single child in the audience.  Except for a couple of grown-ass men in the row behind me acting like children, we were all adults. The audience was probably the most noisy during the trailers and commercial because a lot of them were eating way before the movie even started.

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno is the first movie of a two-part story.  I walked in the cinema with a familiarity with the anime series, and I saw the first movie a couple of years ago, but I haven't brushed up on any info before seeing this one. While a viewer might want to view the first movie for a refresher on the major characters, this movie doesn't necessitate it's viewers to read the entire manga or see the the entire series to able to appreciate it.  The story is essentially laid out and it's easy to just take it as it is.  I did, however, get confused on some historical and geographical points (I've forgotten that Edo is Tokyo), hehehe.

There isn't much character development for most of the characters but I feel that the portrayal of the characters make up for it.  The actors managed to embody their characters' quirks, enough to get them and to remember them even if they didn't get much screen-time.

Takeru Sato is Himura Kenshin, Munetaka Aoki as the relentless Sagara Sanosuke, Yu Aoi as Takani Megumi, Ryunosuke Kamiki as Seta Sojiro, Tatsuya Fujiwara as Makoto Shishio.

Emi Takei, still makes for a better Kaoru than in the anime.  In an old blog post, I've said that she looks a lot like local celebrity Kathryn Bernardo.  In the movie, Emi has a barefaced look and sun-kissed skin, very similar to the look of Kathryn in her "Princess and I" series. The semblance may not seem apparent now as Emi Takei looks different outside of this movie and Kathryn now favors a more sophisticated makeup style.

Yosuke Eguchi, as Hajime Saito,  looks different than I would have imagined. I would have imagined Saito to be a little more gaunt.  He looks good though, like he actually eats and not just chain smoking the whole day.

Maryjun Takahashi, as Yumi Kogata, has a profile and expression that suits the character in close-ups but loses presence in front shots and in other scenes.

I like the action choreography. It tries to stay close to the vibe of the anime, and like the anime, for the most part you can actually see what's going on. It's interesting without being overly complicated.  There are a lot of fight scenes that happen throughout the film, but there's just enough in a scene to draw you in but not too much that you'd get sick of it.

The look of this movie is wonderful.  The whole thing is just postcard pretty. And is it just me or is there a yellowish tint to the film?  I don't mind.  It does lend a little more 'period look' to the whole movie.  The backdrop, the surrounding, still has that surreal, carefully crafted look it had from the first movie, but this time it blends in more.  It just feels even more authentic now than in the first.  Maybe it's the tint?  Maybe it's just me.

Before these movies, I didn't think it was possible to bring manga/anime characters to the screen as real people.  At a glance, these characters are just this group of seemingly ordinary people who are able to do these extraordinary things.  I think that's the beauty of it.  In these movies, they've managed to recreate this world as if it's a part of our reality, without losing their nuances and their essence.  I would never have imagined this interpretation to be possible and I am thankful for them for bringing their vision to the big screen.