The narrative is difficult to grasp because of the bloody nature of the film.
There are the traditional themes of loyalty and honor. Revenge being a way of expressing loyalty and honor. What's different here is the theme of redemption.
The protagonist (Manji) killed his superior. Mercenaries kidnapped and killed Manji's sister in order to collect the reward on his head. Manji shows great fortitude in killing all the mercenaries despite receiving multiple deathly wounds.
A sorceress revives him and gifted him with immortality. And, sends a girl (Rin) to him after her parents are killed. There's a master swordsman (Anotsu) with a megalomaniac desire to dominate the world of swordsmen. With his cadre of talented killers, Anotsu destroy many dojo including Rin's father.
The cynical Manji decides to help Rin presumably because of the similarity between Rin and Manji's sister. Manji uses his immortality to defeat the master killers who are more skilled than Manji.
Like the film Kill Bill, the foes get a chance to say something about themselves before being killed.
In the middle of the film, the narrative gets confused as Manji meets a fellow immortal with the same aim of stopping Anotsu. But, Manji ends up killing his fellow immortal.
Then, Manji is defeated by a woman assassin but is spared because of the assassin's sentimentality about Rin.
Finally, the government acts against Anotsu. It gets really confused as Anotsu and Manji separately battle hordes of government soldiers.
The film ends with a great deal of ambiguity. Was it worth spilling the rivers of blood?
Overall, the movie is audacious. Crafting a variance of the samurai genre. However, the story telling is confused by the sub-plots and the ambiguous finale.
The filmmakers may have intended to break from the traditional narrative. But, IMO the scale of the epic worked against the attempted interpretation of humanity. Something sparse like Rashomon might have worked better.
Certainly lots of room here for debate!
There are the traditional themes of loyalty and honor. Revenge being a way of expressing loyalty and honor. What's different here is the theme of redemption.
The protagonist (Manji) killed his superior. Mercenaries kidnapped and killed Manji's sister in order to collect the reward on his head. Manji shows great fortitude in killing all the mercenaries despite receiving multiple deathly wounds.
A sorceress revives him and gifted him with immortality. And, sends a girl (Rin) to him after her parents are killed. There's a master swordsman (Anotsu) with a megalomaniac desire to dominate the world of swordsmen. With his cadre of talented killers, Anotsu destroy many dojo including Rin's father.
The cynical Manji decides to help Rin presumably because of the similarity between Rin and Manji's sister. Manji uses his immortality to defeat the master killers who are more skilled than Manji.
Like the film Kill Bill, the foes get a chance to say something about themselves before being killed.
In the middle of the film, the narrative gets confused as Manji meets a fellow immortal with the same aim of stopping Anotsu. But, Manji ends up killing his fellow immortal.
Then, Manji is defeated by a woman assassin but is spared because of the assassin's sentimentality about Rin.
Finally, the government acts against Anotsu. It gets really confused as Anotsu and Manji separately battle hordes of government soldiers.
The film ends with a great deal of ambiguity. Was it worth spilling the rivers of blood?
Overall, the movie is audacious. Crafting a variance of the samurai genre. However, the story telling is confused by the sub-plots and the ambiguous finale.
The filmmakers may have intended to break from the traditional narrative. But, IMO the scale of the epic worked against the attempted interpretation of humanity. Something sparse like Rashomon might have worked better.
Certainly lots of room here for debate!