(Review originally written at 9 June 2005)
This is the movie that set the standards for future action movies. It perfectly mixes all the action movie elements we are familiar with these this days in movies.
But still its not the action I'll remember this movie by. I'll remember the movie for its wonderful and heroic story and top-notch characters. For me it truly were the characters that made the movie. Every characters has its own fun strong personality. My personal favorite character was Kyuzo played by Seiji Miyaguchi, he simply is one of those characters I always love in movies. Heroic, extremely specialized, without fear and many emotions but he doesn't have a prominent role or many lines. For some odd reason he really reminded me of Capt. Speirs from "Band of Brothters".
The cinematography and editing are good. Even though the movie is almost three and a halve hour long, it doesn't feel like it, due to a pleasant pace and story that never gets dull even though there are some slow moments in the movie, I mean basically it isn't until the ending till the first real action starts.
Also impressive are the costumes and the set decoration. The nice little musical score suits the movie well and is only used in the right places. The final showdown also ain't a disappointment although the sword fights and all are pretty lame, especially compared to movies made present day of course.
A highly enjoyable action movie with heroic characters and a wonderful story, with multiple layers in it.
9/10
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