華麗的冒險

Today I had the opportunity to watch Rurouni Kenshin, a live-action adaptation of the famous manga "Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story". The manga was written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. It's not easy to watch Japanese film in NYC but fortunately Japan Society bring wonderful contemporary Japanese cinema to us. I get to sit inside a nice auditorium with air conditioning and enjoy awesome 135 minutes of great movie! Yes! GREAT movie.

Forget about “Dragonball Evolution” (live-action science fiction film loosely based on the Japanese Dragon Ball media franchise.), “The Last Airbender” (A live-action film based on M. Night Shyamalan's interpretation of the first season of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender), or “The King of Fighters” (science fiction-martial arts film based upon SNK Playmore's The King of Fighters series of fighting games.) Kenshin will beat them ALL!

The story is well written so even if the audiences are not familiar with the manga, it won’t be a problem for anyone to understand. The movie basically skipped or lightly brushed on several background character settings to avoid lengthy explanation. But for long-time manga fan like me, it’s very easy to spot the characters. The stylist really did a great job and the actors portrait the characters well. There were many moments when the audience started clapping hands and cheering for the characters. Although the movie might seem bloody or violent to some, there were actually many funny scene through the movie.

The best part about the movie: it did not screw up the fight. Seriously, I was dying when I watched “The King of Fighters”. The fighting were horrible. Thank BUDDHA that’s not the case here. All the actions in Rurouni Kenshin are GREAT. The sword fights were clean and well executed. The other combat scenes worth watching too and they make sense. No more one hit KO every fodder whenever they show up. The big battle where Kenshin and Sanosuke fight off tons of guards hired by Takeda Kanryū at the mansion actually took time showing Kenshin and Sanosuke fend off waves and waves of guards coming. And it’s absolutely awesome to see it, unlike “Kill Bill”.

In short, it’s a wonderful movie and great example of live-action adaptation of manga. I can’t wait for the sequel to come out. 

http://youtu.be/lc_JmcRxdx8