RELEASED today and showing at QFT Belfast from next week, Japanese flick Blade of The Immortal offers viewers plenty of hyper-choreographed limb-slicing swordplay.
Based on a manga series, The Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi The Killer, 13 Assassins) directed film centres on Manji (Takuya Kimura), a renegade samurai cursed with immortality in the wake of a near fatal battle.
Fifty years later and still haunted by a family tragedy, Manji finds himself helping the young Rin (Hana Sugisaki) avenge the death of her parents at the hands/blades of a group of roaming killers led by ruthless warrior Anotsu (Sota Fukushi).
The fact that Manji's curse doesn't prevent him from being wounded adds a little spice to proceedings, as Kimura's grumpy swordsman wearily cuts a cross country swathe though hundreds of crazed combatants while protecting his deceptively cutesy companion.
While Takashi Miike's 100th movie isn't particularly original or memorable and could probably withstand having 30 minutes or so chopped off its substantial 151 minute running time, Blade of The Immortal is still an effectively executed slice-and-dicer with a good few chuckles to enjoy amid its multiple, increasingly frenzied battle scenes.
:: Blade of The Immortal is at QFT from December 12 to 14 and December 29 until January 4. Tickets and times at Queensfilmtheatre.com
