Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)

 

7/10

Starring

Takeru Satoh

Kasumi Arimura

Issey Takahashi

Nijirō Murakami

Directed by Keishi Ōtomo

(if you have not seen Rurouni Kenshin: The Final, this review contains spoilers)

I enjoyed this movie more than I did Rurouni Kenshin: The Final. Here we get to have fun watching the beginning of everything. Another plus for those who live for blood and gore in their movies will be this time we get to see Battusai slash people and they die and some of the killings were brutal. This is not like the previous movies where they just roll on the ground in pain. There is blood spillage in this flick. What thrills me most is the fight choreography, viewers are in for a treat and will love his movements and the movements of those he goes up against.

I for one did not like the long pauses in the movie sometimes Himura was just too quiet in the scenes he was in, it was weird. But I guess that is his character, but it is more enjoyable when he is playing the quiet samurai against the wonderful team from the previous three Kenshin films . Another thing I did not like was, they made him a softy someone who was opposed to the killing, which he seem to be a pro at doing. His opposition to it was not the problem, it was the way the movie made the character go sit morose that I did not fancy.

The movie plot sheds more light to the previous movie before it Rurouni Kenshin: The Final. Kenshin is working as an assassin for the Choshu clan who want to end the Tokugawa shogunate. During such an assassin run he comes up against a man who gives him his first cut on the check, as the man’s will to live surpassed Kenshin’s understanding. From there he meets a lady Tomoe whom he befriends and develops feelings for. Their clan was betrayed by someone from the inside and the shogunate almost kills everyone of their clan. The group disbanded with Kenshin on the run with Tomoe, they hide in one of the Choshu safehouse. Soon we discover there is more to even Tomoe than Kenshin knows. Plus, the battle to overturn the Tokugawa shogunate coincides with another battle to assassinate Kenshin.

This movie, Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning is the last movie of the set (I think) and the fifth movie to star Takeru Satoh as Himura Kenshin. As this movie focuses more on what made Himura Battusai and what led to him being a wanderer, you can set this movie as a prequel to everything we have seen in the four previous movies. The only character from the other movies we get to see is Yosuke Eguchi who plays Saito.

This movie was produced along side Rurouni Kenshin: The Final and you if you recall clips from the previous movie which showed us the death of Tomoe, well you can see the full story here.

The movie is available for streaming on Netflix and a nice addition to the Rurouni Kenshin five movie thriller.