With the advent of a new, more peaceful era, however, Kenshin resolved to never kill again, and now carries a sword with a reversed blade that he uses to stun his opponents, not draw blood from them. Kenshin, for those late to this particular party, is a smooth-faced, softly spoken master swordsman who, in the chaotic last days of the Shogunate, came to be known as Hitokiri Battosai (roughly, “Sword-drawing Manslayer”) for his deadly skill as an assassin. The story, about a bitter ex-assassin’s attempt to overthrow the new Meiji Era government in the 19th century, takes a sharp turn to sheer fantasy, a la “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” That is, it’s a movie for those who know their samurai mostly from games and comics, not real history (with which traditional jidaigeki, admittedly, take considerable liberties). Which is not to say that the film is an old-school jidaigeki with more extras (5,000 to be exact). They maximize the impact of the many sword-fight scenes with crisp pacing and cool, inventive moves, while keeping a rein on the sort of eye-blink cuts and eye-candy CGI effects that drain so many action films of anything resembling realism. What makes this sequel and its predecessor different from the jidaigeki that have recently sunk without a box-office trace? One thing is how director Keishi Otomo and action choreographer Kenji Tanigaki, a disciple of Hong Kong martial arts star Donnie Yen, handle the on-screen action.
Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno) Rating
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