Kamui (2009)

Very well executed

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"No matter how much we fight it, we can't never be human."Two things hurt Kamui Gaiden pretty badly, in my eyes. A wretchedly bad subtitle job that makes the story practically incomprehensible at times, and some very poorly done special effects and CGI that make every action sequence look fake. Even these flaws could be somewhat ignored if Kamui shined in other areas, and thankfully, it does manage a glimmer or two. After the poorly told back-story is out of the way, the plot settles down into a more straightforward tale. The fights still aren't all that amazing and the special effects are still just as conspicuous, but the story of Kamui does strike a few chords as he tries to escape from his past and meets people who he starts to care for, and who are put in danger by the runaway ninja's very presence. Check this out if you're starved for some ninja action, but Kamui Gaiden is not a masterpiece by any definition.

After reading the other (positive) reviews, I am still unclear what redeeming qualities this film (purportedly) has. I am particularly boggled by the fact that some of the previous reviewers argued that the film was worth a watch or even deserved to be considered a "classic" (really?) without supplying any explanations or actual reasons, nor provide a comparison between this film and other films in the same genre (although, in what genre would this film really belong? 'Trashbin flicks'?). In fact, I wonder if we actually sat through the same film.To provide a quick synopsis, the film has a premise (a rogue ninja hunted by other ninjas, trying to find a 'safe harbour'), but no plot. The story meanders through a series of cliché scenes with predictable outcomes, occasionally interrupted by people flying on wires performing 'special moves' that needed a narrator's help to explain (I guess if you like being treated as an idiot, this film might be for you...), ridiculous twists with nonsensical motivations, and animal cruelty that even I--someone not anything close to being a card-carrying member of PETA--found rather distasteful.At some point, the only way to rationalize why we continue to subject ourselves to this filmatic torture was to find some small solace in nit-picking the technical errors and nonsensical development of the story. For example, I don't think the writer actually understood -how- crucifixion works as a form of capital punishment (puncturing the prisoner's body actually works to undermine its effects), and I particularly didn't think it was good parenting to have your 14 old year daughter take off her cloth and use her body to warm a stranger of sketchy background.I've never read the manga, and after watching this film, I have no desire to. So if translating the manga into film was intended to extend and expand the franchise, it's failed to do that with me. I am not sure how anyone but the most fervent fans of the manga series might find this film appealing. If you have an attention span of longer than 3 minutes, I recommend you avoid this mess altogether.

Its rare to find a good ninja movie lately this one I recommend to skip because you're not missing anything. The story is utterly nonsense, usually ninja movies have the basic ninja fights and silliness but this is beyond that. Think of the stupidness thing you can think of because that is pretty much what the movie is.Anyone can think of a better story than this. The beginning has a horse's leg cut off while it was still alive and it was made into a fishing lure and of course that upsets the owner who was a Lord. So why cut off a leg and what was the point of making it for fishing? There are some flying great white sharks which doesn't make sense and at the end it gets more stupid every person Kamui knew ended up poisoned and during his duel a flock of seagulls kept flying around. This is one movie that makes you say what the? I wouldn't consider this a ninja movie there's barely any action scenes it was supposed to be about a rogue ninja but it was mostly on how to fish.

This is a film about a ninja called Kamui who decides he doesn't want to be a ninja anymore, problem is, you're not allowed to leave. So death in all it's forms is going to come for Kamui throughout this film. This spawns the familiar trope of the hero who stays alive but gets everyone around him, including his loved ones, killed (like the hardboiled American cop who goes through a fistful of partners as if they were dimes for the telephone). Kamui reminds me of a deciduous tree, the trunk of which remains strong and constant, but whose leaves eventually wilt and abscice. The bounteous autumnal melange of colours preceding the winter barrenness.It's chambara here all the way, and as it's very ambitious, it's often CGId - wire work can only take you so far in the arena of awesome stunts. The fighters here have really pretty much supernatural skills that make Crouching Tiger look positively undercooked. There's some fun stuff that Kamui fights with, including a knuckleduster with triangular ridges, that can be used for parrying sword blows (though you'd better be pretty accurate with those parries...)As Kamui (Ken'ichi Matsuyama) is a really rather sullen character, who has appeal more as a heartthrob to potential androphile members of the audience, much of the ready humour in the film is delegated to supporting actors including Kaoru Kobayashi (as Hanbei the fisherman), and Hideaki Ito (as Lord Fudoh, the incredibly appealing and roguish pirate captain).There's a side story in the movie about a gaily apparelled and brutally petulant daimyo lord. The stories do crossover, but I think the daimyo strand is more there for contrast, the kind of easy god-like existence of the highly undeserving daimyo, with the bleak struggle to survive of Kamui. After all the main threat for Kamui is the ninja fraternity, he's not even a speck on the daimyo's radar.There's this thing in Japanese movies where they like to confront characters with a personal hell (one of the few Japanese words I regularly recognise in Japanese movies is jigoku - hell). There's a quite effective example of that in this movie.All in all I would tend to say this movie overdoes the CGI, you can see stuff like waves that leave no filmy coating on surfaces after they recede, and you think hang on why are they using CGI for ... water. It is however highly enjoyable. One last note is that someone behind the movie should learn a little bit more about shark behaviour maybe, the scenes with them in are funny, but they behave so stupidly and atypically here that it is a little bewildering, even within the encapsulated cinematic world of reduced realism.