jaw, meet floor.
28 Dec 2012 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigouSorry you guys who are LotR fans, but I've finally gotten to see the live-action Rurouni Kenshin and cripes has Takeru Sato left his idol days of Nobuta wo Produce far behind. As adorable as NwP was, no doubt, it was goofy and magical but it wasn't Kenshin, omfg. I don't normally keyboard smash of fangirling but ASDLKJFASDF;JASDLN;A ;JASD;LJASDF;LAKJDF Want want want sequel like FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO RIGHT NAOW A;SJLDFAL;KJDFSL;AKJDFS;OIEURSDNFLK
(Also, this is the second year in a row that I knew exactly what I wanted on my birthday, and it was available in some means on my birthday, but I didn't get to see it until the last few days of the year. Last year it was tickets going on sale for a dance production that wouldn't be until 12/28, this year it was Kenshin and having to wait until today for the BR/DVD to finally show up. Subbers seriously worked overtime to get well-done subs out at record speed, too. My birthday delayed no longer! Though perhaps next year I should just plan ahead and accept I'm now effectively a Sagittarius.)
Though as I mentioned to CP mid-movie, I can't think of another Japanese tv/movie production that really showed the utter lethalness of the katana in full-on melee at top speed. The closest might be Ichi, but that was almost always a single-combat, one-strike-you're-dead lightning fast move. Not at all the same as a style (supposedly) intended to take out a huge number of people at top speed. Can't say I've ever seen a Japanese movie choreographed as tightly as this one; it was almost Sammy Hung levels of choreography. Very impressive.
And the real enjoyment came as I realized about halfway through that while the first four or so arcs of Kenshin (the fake Battousai arc, the Kanryu/opium arc, and the Jin'ei arc, plus the mini-arcs introducing Megumi, Sanosuke, and Yahiko) are all bound together in a neatly-plotted, much tighter storyline... it doesn't feel as though the director's personality got slapped on top. Maybe it's that I wasn't exposed to a media onslaught during production, the way it was hard to avoid the same for LotR and then TaBA and Jackson, Jackson, Jackson. But the adaptation of LotR did feel, throughout, to me as though Jackson had to make the story 'his' in some way. Things being changed for the sake of being able to say he had changed it, while here, it felt like the movie bent to the story, instead. Not sure that makes sense; it's hard to express.
But in all, as someone whose first true anime love was Kenshin, I cannot think of a single element in the live-action adaptation that leaves me anything less than absolutely ecstatic, pleased, impressed... and omg I am so dying for a sequel. Someone please please tell me there'll be one.
full subs @ yuizaki-libra's journal
to find 720 version, google RUROUNIKENSHIN[GB][BDRip][720P][
AND, pass this along because this is a movie that DESERVES to be seen on the BIGGEST SCREEN POSSIBLE. Okay, not imax, because that might be a little too much, but damn near close. Sign the petition and repost! Petition for Nationwide theatrical release of Rurouni Kenshin -- hey, can't hurt!
(Also, this is the second year in a row that I knew exactly what I wanted on my birthday, and it was available in some means on my birthday, but I didn't get to see it until the last few days of the year. Last year it was tickets going on sale for a dance production that wouldn't be until 12/28, this year it was Kenshin and having to wait until today for the BR/DVD to finally show up. Subbers seriously worked overtime to get well-done subs out at record speed, too. My birthday delayed no longer! Though perhaps next year I should just plan ahead and accept I'm now effectively a Sagittarius.)
Though as I mentioned to CP mid-movie, I can't think of another Japanese tv/movie production that really showed the utter lethalness of the katana in full-on melee at top speed. The closest might be Ichi, but that was almost always a single-combat, one-strike-you're-dead lightning fast move. Not at all the same as a style (supposedly) intended to take out a huge number of people at top speed. Can't say I've ever seen a Japanese movie choreographed as tightly as this one; it was almost Sammy Hung levels of choreography. Very impressive.
And the real enjoyment came as I realized about halfway through that while the first four or so arcs of Kenshin (the fake Battousai arc, the Kanryu/opium arc, and the Jin'ei arc, plus the mini-arcs introducing Megumi, Sanosuke, and Yahiko) are all bound together in a neatly-plotted, much tighter storyline... it doesn't feel as though the director's personality got slapped on top. Maybe it's that I wasn't exposed to a media onslaught during production, the way it was hard to avoid the same for LotR and then TaBA and Jackson, Jackson, Jackson. But the adaptation of LotR did feel, throughout, to me as though Jackson had to make the story 'his' in some way. Things being changed for the sake of being able to say he had changed it, while here, it felt like the movie bent to the story, instead. Not sure that makes sense; it's hard to express.
But in all, as someone whose first true anime love was Kenshin, I cannot think of a single element in the live-action adaptation that leaves me anything less than absolutely ecstatic, pleased, impressed... and omg I am so dying for a sequel. Someone please please tell me there'll be one.
full subs @ yuizaki-libra's journal
to find 720 version, google RUROUNIKENSHIN[GB][BDRip][720P][
AND, pass this along because this is a movie that DESERVES to be seen on the BIGGEST SCREEN POSSIBLE. Okay, not imax, because that might be a little too much, but damn near close. Sign the petition and repost! Petition for Nationwide theatrical release of Rurouni Kenshin -- hey, can't hurt!
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 06:46 am (UTC)Holy crap.
/drops everything to go hunting...
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 08:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 10:16 pm (UTC)Then again, given they managed to pack about four or more arcs into a single storyline, I do think Aoshi -- because he comes with such a massive backstory set o' implications on his own -- would've been too much. It would've been like old folks week or something, and try explaining why everyone and their brother just happened to show up at that point who just also happened to have history with Kenshin. Sanosuke is written more as an opportunistic, general thing (in that he probably never would have hunted down Kenshin but isn't against taking advantage if Kenshin appeared), while Saito clearly has a reason for being there. But Jinei is the one actively seeking/taunting Kenshin, so I think if Aoshi had appeared it would've made things too top-heavy.
Aoshi and all his ninja backstory whatever kind of deserves its own movie. I mean, doesn't he kind of pop up and then simply disappear again until the Kyoto Arc? ...I can't recall, but I thought there was another arc between Jinei and Kyoto. Ugh, it's been so long!
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 12:43 pm (UTC)(_Kenshin_ wasn't my first anime love, it was the only anime I ever watched as an adult. At least for half of its run; I didn't start watching the after-Kyoto bits and I am told I probably shouldn't? Or should I? I don't know.)
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 07:23 pm (UTC)...I am just totally bemused that I just now found out about a live action Rurouni Kenshin.
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 10:16 pm (UTC)(I added links, but sign the petition, too!)
no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Dec 2012 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Dec 2012 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 30 Dec 2012 03:58 am (UTC)(and seriously thinking if I were to ever buy a big screen tv it'd be for THIS, omg)
can you rent big-screen tvs? I wonder if we have any friends who have one, so we can invite ourselves over for a rewatch. hmmmmm. *plotplotplot*