Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)

Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)

 

6/10

Starring

Takeru Satoh

Emi Takei

Mackenyu Arata

Munetaka Aoki

Yū Aoi

Tao Tsuchiya

Yōsuke Eguchi

Directed by Keishi Ōtomo

In summary this is not as good as the previous three although it is watchable. I wonder if I have not known the story of Tomoe before seeing this, if the flashback scene would have been clear enough. The movie did not make the life of Tomoe clear enough, her death and the changes in the story in comparison to the manga made that aspect of Kenshin's life fuzzy. It is inferred rather than clearly shown that her death was a mistake and not at all Kenshin's intent. 

Seven years after the release of the third installment in the Shishio trilogy Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014), we get to see the live adaptation of the final story arc in the Rurouni Kenshin Manga series.

After the end of the battle with Shishio a new character emerges Yukishiro Enishi, who basically wants revenge on Kenshin for the death of his sister Yukishiro Tomoe. If you are following the anime Samurai X Shishio arc and the live action movies, you may not have come across this character and her significance in Kenshin’s life. This arc in the Rurouni Kenshin series, gives us light to how Kenshin got his scars and the love he had before he decided to stop being Battusai.

The story differs from the manga, and the movie takes a long while to kick in. There are many instances in the movie in the early stages that seem to be dragging the inevitable. But as you would expect, the movie does showcase powerful martial arts and sword mastery. The fight scenes are as cool as you would expect.

Enishi wants revenge on Kenshin because of his past, we find out that Battusai used to be in a relationship with his sister Tomoe. At first it seems it was a setup to get her close to him by the ones who are after him, but before long they develop feelings for one another. Incidents led to her death to which Kenshin was the cause.

Now in the present, Enishi is back for revenge and he is taking his revenge out on everyone and anything that Kenshin loves and holds dear, including the Japanese government.

As you would expect, when Enishi brought with him carnage, blood and unrest.

One thing I liked is how the movie did not drop into wasted flashbacks, which seems to be the Hollywood technique. There you see flashbacks into an aspect of a character’s life which by coincidence have something to do with the present predicament, which he is unaware of at the times of the flashbacks. But become relevant when he faces the present predicament.

Here when the chaos hit the fan and Kenshin confronted the person involved, the veil was removed from our eyes and we learn of Kenshin’s past and who this new enemy is.

I think seven years is a long wait for a sequel and it did add to the not so interested feel I had initially before I sat to see this. In the end, the acting were on point and as you would have expected from a Kenshin movie, the sword fights were fast, slick and make you wish you can pick up the sword and move like him.

You can catch this movie on Netflix, and I will advise you see the three movies before seeing this so you can get a feel of who Kenshin is and the characters involved.