For some reason, Funimation sent us screeners of the Rurouni Kenshin live-action movie trilogy. Why they did so is beyond me, however. I would’ve imagined that, after the rather savage beatdown I gave to the Attack on Titan movies, they weren’t going to send us anything again.
So I set into the movie with a degree of trepidation in proportion to how much that Titan baby pissed me off. And you can imagine my surprise in finding it to be a reasonably faithful adaptation of the source material. Granted, its been over a decade since I read the manga, so it might be wise to take anything I say with a grain of salt. But judging by the first movie, each one will adapt a major arc. That being said, they’re movies, so some things get adapted out just to fit for time.
Overall, this is an adaptation that works better than AoT. Since Kenshin requires a lot less in the way of special effects, there are also fewer composite shots, literally limited to a few times where Kenshin makes crazy, high speed leaps through the air. It pretty much shows that they spent a sizable amount of the budget on sets and period accurate costuming. And making their movie pretty; can’t blame them for that.
The first movie is an adaptation of the Kanryu arc. There are a few deviations, but they’re the sort of thing you’ve probably come to expect from film adaptations of things. Some of the characters become composites (Jin-e and Gein, for example, take on aspects of characters that were adapted out), while others get their debut moved forward just so that they can be introduced earlier (Saito). While most of the characters are accurate to their manga/anime counterparts, others are made to look period accurate (Kanryu actually wears a suit that would not be out of place in that time, as opposed to the fairly anachronistic one he wore in the source material). The really interesting part was that in some cases, they chose to make a character look like their actual historical counterpart if they had one (Saito being exempt from this, naturally).
The movie also does its best to get Kenshin’s backstory out of the way so that they can get to the fights near the end legitimately. He actually tells someone the story of how he got his scars, far earlier than in other versions, though it does cause one of the very few laughable moments in the movie. The flashback shows him executing a group of samurai, including one that was loudly mentioning he was getting married the next day. Wedding boy (Kiyosato Akira, yes I had to look his name up, it’s been a long time) gets back up. Kenshin kills him again. He gets back up again</i>. Rinse and repeat until Kenshin finally stabs him through the heart. It sadly plays less like a dramatic scene and more like something from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Their casting choices were all pretty good. Granted, it’s difficult for me to assess acting performed in a non-Romanic language that I don’t understand. But they mostly went with actors capable of pulling off the characters. Sanosuke doesn’t have his ever-present fish bone; it doesn’t really work in live action, so they switched it with an obsession with eggs. Raw eggs. For maximum Rocky points.
The fights in the movie are a real draw. There aren’t any Dragonball-esque beam o’wars in Kenshin, so everything plays out more like martial arts film. Which is good, because that makes for fun fights. As a matter of fact, I’d personally consider Sanosuke’s fight with Banjin to be the best in the movie. you just know it’s good when they wreck an entire room fighting, and that room is a kitchen. The sword fights are also delightful; they’re not exactly meant to parallel reality, but that’s okay. Real sword fights were over in seconds. Though Rurouni Kenshin is still probably responsible for at least a few nerds winding up with the nickname “Stumpy”.
They went all out on their sets. They took great pains in recreating the architecture of the period. The Meiji era fostered an incredible amount of change in Japanese culture and architecture.The sets look good, and they really bring some life to every scene, regardless of whether they’re historically accurate or simply series accurate (The gate to Kanryu’s mansion needs to be mentioned).
Overall, I was surprised by this one. After the Attack on Titan movies, I was a little worried. But they really nailed this one.
Final Thoughts:
- The movie picks up around the time Kenshin finally gets his more recognizable clothing.
- The soundtrack is pretty good, too.
- I have no idea whether the actor was doing something to produce the effect, or whether Kanryu’s teeth were a prosthetic.
4/5
‘Great’
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