The Wandering Samurai

Last December 2012, The Live Action Film adaptation of the manga and anime of Rurouni Kensin, or more popularly known as Samurai X, was released in the Philippines in SM Cinemas. As a fan, I was filled with excitement knowing that one of my favorites will have its live action adaptation and will be released in the Philippines. I used to watch the anime when I was a kid, and when I got into highschool, I started to read the manga though I still haven't finished the 28 volumes manga.

Wanderer that is what the word "Rurouni" means. Rurouni Kenshin, takes place in the Meiji era and is about a wandering samurai who participated in the Bakumatsu war as an assassin, named Kenshin Himura. During the Bakumatsu war, he was known as Hitokiri Battōsai. Hitokiri meaning man slayer. After the war, he wanders the countryside of Japan offering protection and aid to those in need to atone for the murders he committed during his time as an assassin. He then arrives at Tokyo and meets Kamiya Kaoru, instructor at the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu dojo, who's fighting against a person who claims to be Battōsai and is tarnishing the name of the dojo her father left her. He helps her with her problems and Kaoru in return lets Kenshin stay at her place.  He accepts the offer and starts to establish a life long relationship with Sanosuke Sagara(a brawler,former member of the Sekiho army), Yahiko Myojin(an orphan from a samurai family) and a beautiful doctor named Takani Megumi. As time passed by, he encounters some enemies, old and new. 

Here is the movie's plot. Hitokiri Battōsai participates in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi and leaves the battlefield as the Imperialist forces celebrates their victory. After a decade, he arrives in Tokyo and meets the owner of a Kendo school left to her by her father. Kaoru's only student was a young boy named Yahiko Myojin. Later, the dojo was attacked by a group of thugs who are under the employment of the rich, opium smuggler Takeda Kenryu. He arrives and defeats the thugs. Police arrives and he was brought to jail for illegal possession of a katana. Before he was taken to jail, Kaoru asks for his name and he tells her that his name is Kenshin Himura. He was seen in jail by Sanosuke Sagara, who was also in jail. Kenshin was freed after his meeting with an acquaintance, a person who was also in the war. Upon Kenshin's return, Yahiko helps a drenched in rain Takani Megumi. Megumi starts staying with them, not knowing that she is on the run from Takeda Kenryu. She told Kenshin her story when there was a case of poisoning in the area, the victims were brought in Kaoru's dojo and Megumi helps cure the victims. Megumi leaves after the poisoning incident and went back to Takeda's mansion to kill but fails in her attempt. She was then held as hostage. Kenshin and Sanosuke attacks Takeda's mansion, who has armed himself with a gatling gun. After the battle, Megumi was saved but tells Kenshin that Kaoru's in danger. Kenshin then found out that Jin-e Udo, a hitokiri like him who was also at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi has kidnapped Kaoru. The battle between them ends, when Kenshin broke Jin-e's elbow and Jin-e committed suicide(seppuku?). The film ends when Kaoru woke up and starts searching for Kenshin in fear that he might have left and finds him walking back inside the dojo bringing vegetables. She then says to Kenshin, "Welcome back, Kenshin".

Characters: (Live Action vs. Anime/Manga)

Kenshin Himura (LA)

Kenshin Himura(Anime)

Kaoru Kamiya (LA)

Kaoru Kamiya (Anime)

Megumi Takani (LA)

Megumi Takani (Anime)

Sanosuke Sagara(LA)

Sanosuke Sagara(Anime)

Yahiko Myojin (LA)

Yahiko Myojin(Anime)

Kanreyu Takeda (LA)

Kanreyu Takeda (Anime)

Jin-e Udo (LA)

Jin-e Udo (Anime)

There are difference in the movie and the manga. Firstly, in the movie, Yahiko Myojin,, Sanosuke Sagara and Takani Megumi are all directly introduced, where in the manga, Kenshin saves Yahiko, Sanosuke battles Kenshin first and then much,much later helps Megumi. Also the movie only covered 2 arcs in the story. The arc where Kenshin battles Udo and the arc with Takeda. This 2 arcs happened at differect time frames in the manga, but occured simultaneously in the film.

What's cool in this film is that, it's a good adaptation of the manga although there are small differences. The movie made the stunts and the jutsus in the manga much more life-like. It is rather fun seeing them fight using swordskills that are closer to reality. Also the both the film and the manga depicts, certain parts of Japan's history. The Bakumatsu war and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi are both events in Japanese history that talks about the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, the end of the Edo period and the coming of the "new era", the Meiji period. Also Kenshin Himura is based on one of the Four Hitokiris of the Bakumatsu, Kawakami Gensai.

CAST:

Takeru Sato as Kenshin Himura

Koji Kikkawa as Jin-e Udo

Emi Takei as Kaoru Kamiya

Yu Aoi as Megumi Takani

Munetaka Aoki as Sanosuke Sagara

Teruyuki Kagawa as Kanreyu Takeda

So there, although its a bit late to talk about this movie since it was shown last year, I still enjoyed sharing these things to you, since I'm a fan of this manga and I'm an otaku myself. :)

The 38th Metro Manila Film Festival

Last December 25, 2012 the official movie entries to the 38th Metro Manila Film Festival was released in cinemas. The list of the film entries were El Presidente, One More Try, Shake,Rattle & Roll 14, SiAgimat, Si Enteng at Si Ako,  Sisterekas, Sosy Problems, The Strangers and Thy Womb.. During the festival, no foreign films were shown in Philippine theaters to support the locally produced films. 

In the list of the official movie entries, I was able to watch Shake, Rattle & Roll 14 (because I was required to make a paper about this in one of my subjects, though I would have preferred to watch Sisterakas for being a comedy film haha. I mean who doesn't want a good laugh in the break?). Anyway, the film just like its thirteen predecessors, consist of 3 different horror stories which are, you can say, very Filipino(well except for the 3rd one, you'll see why). 

The first of the three stories was 'Pamana', This is about 4 cousins who all of a sudden inherits money worth 20 million pesos and 4 of their uncles most valued comic artworks which are all scary. Out of the 4 cousins, 2 keeps the artwork while the other 2 throws it away. The 2 that threw the artworks they inherited became haunted by the characters and results into one of the cousins dying. They went back to their deceased uncle's mansion, and was haunted there by all of the characters in the artworks with an additional one. In the end, only of the four cousins survived and she inherited all of the 20 million, but not knowing that one of the devils from the artwork was with her. 

["Brrr. Don't Touch Me." HAHA]
Kondenado, one of the artworks that came to life.

The band of good looking soldiers out to face their worst nightmares

The next story was 'Lost Command'. I must say that this is the scariest of the three, though not really bordering the scary factor you get from other horror movies. This is about a platoon of soldiers venturing in a dark forest going after unknown hostiles. Unbeknownst to them, the hostiles they are going after is a band of soldier-turned-into-man-eating-monsters-who-recruits-other-men-to-be-part-of-their-army. The army turned out to be the lost command the Philippine army lost years ago. Out of the soldiers in the venturing platoon, only one survived. He wakes up in a hospital, and finds out that the bodies next to him were his former friends in the platoon that became monsters. It was then implied at the end of the movie that he didn't really survive since he got turn into one of them in the hospital. 

One of the soldier-turned-into-man-eating-monsters-who-recruits-other-men-to-be-part-of-their-army
There's someone behind him.
Beware, he may be out to get you. >:))

The boyfriend and the not so lucky supposedly survivors

The last story was entitled 'Unwanted'. A couple was having a problem in their relationship and they went to a mall to buy each other a present on the expected to be doomsday, 21st of December year 2012. It was then implied that the woman might be pregnant since before she parted ways with her boyfriend to go to the restroom, she was eyeing the baby things in one of the stores. The unexpected happened, the mall was then struck by an unknown large object. The boyfriend wakes up frantic and starts to look for his girlfriend along with other survivors. On the way, most of the survivors the boyfriend was with, died because of the creatures not from this planet. He finds his girlfriend gets out of the mall but they both died after they met the alien beings and the mall collapsed above them.

The couple reunited

That's the three stories. The last story, Unwanted, seems to me like it was referenced to one of those alien/invasion movies in Hollywood. The movie was okay, a bit entertaining since even if it wasn't that scary, it has some comedic relief in it. The actors who played the roles where very good in acting and I think they conveyed their roles really well. The movie also deserve a praise for using very good visual effects, though it still far-off if you compare it to Hollywood movies. The movie all in all, was not really very scary, it tilts more on the funny side rather than it being scary, but still the funny parts were entertaining. I think the movie The Strangers is scarier than this.Enough with the movie, let's go to the awards the movie received. Well I must say, at least it got an award even though it isn't the top grosser. It got the Best Visual Effects award. They really deserve this, I think since, the visual effects were good. Well, I must say that it was an okay movie to watch though I would still really prefer to watch Sisterakas because it's obviously funny because its got 2 of the best comedians in the industry. Oh well, these might be all, about the 38th Metro Manila Film Festival.

Perhaps a Comment no? Even a violent reaction is welcome. Please?