Mix in equal parts Highlander and a Zombie flick and you end up with this cult classic from Japan.
The central premise is admittedly great; the idea of the 666 portals to our world and especially the 444th portal concerned here 'The Forest Of Resurrection' is suitably spooky. In addition, the notion of the perpetually reincarnated warriors battling down throughout the centuries is super cool.
Unfortunately, despite the above awesome premise and in addition even having now watched this film three times, each time having tried desperately hard to enjoy it, I ultimately just cannot appreciate what all the fuss is about.
To be fair there are some excellent sequences included throughout, especially the scenes set in the past wherein our hero bravely faces overwhelming odds, battling to the bitter end against hoards of zombies and his immortal nemesis.
So what went wrong? Well lets start with the characters....
The hero in this is to put it mildly, bland at best and was presumably chosen for the part solely based upon his looks. The end result is that given such a boring hero, I found myself actually rooting for the main bad guy in this (who doesn't actually show up until well into the films proceedings!!!) who let's face it, is MUCH cooler anyway!
Aside from our decidedly lacklustre hero we also get 'treated' to some particularly annoying characters throughout this. For one there is a horribly dressed psycho who particularly irritated the hell out of me! I'm sure the actor playing him was having a ball with his zany character but damn - the character was a veritable pain in the ass! Also of (non)note is the annoying, whining, diminutive fool who keeps accidentally shooting his fellow comrades, the peculiarly hopeless woman who is reincarnated along with our leads throughout the centuries and upon whose blood will decide the fate of the world and the pointless addition of a number of peripheral characters such as a pair of comic relief agents.
The film is mainly celebrated as an action fest and admittedly it does deliver some excellent set pieces throughout. However it has to be said that even these get a bit repetitive as time goes on. The stylised gun play as our protagonists empty seemingly limitless rounds into their undead assailants (and at each other!) does become tiresome after the umpteenth time. In addition despite many reviews I have read to the contrary, the martial arts in this are most definitely not as spectacular as I had been led to believe. In fact it is quite clear upon viewing this, that the majority of relevant actors here are not trained martial artists at all (including the lead), instead they are bolstered via various cinematic tricks such as fast editing in order to compensate.
The single biggest flaw in this for me though is the running time which is drastically too long and drags on severely. In fact, had this film been condensed down by about half an hour (or preferably more) I would have awarded this a much higher rating.
Although an overall sadly unfulfilling watch I must however comment on and commend the excellent open ending in this which seems to reverse the main protagonists roles as the 'game' begins again in the future - great stuff (including the souped up swords!)
Whilst highly recommend by so many and boasting such a huge cult following, try as I might, I simply cannot derive the same enjoyment from this that so many others report to have.
Oh well, maybe the supposed sequel will be better....
The central premise is admittedly great; the idea of the 666 portals to our world and especially the 444th portal concerned here 'The Forest Of Resurrection' is suitably spooky. In addition, the notion of the perpetually reincarnated warriors battling down throughout the centuries is super cool.
Unfortunately, despite the above awesome premise and in addition even having now watched this film three times, each time having tried desperately hard to enjoy it, I ultimately just cannot appreciate what all the fuss is about.
To be fair there are some excellent sequences included throughout, especially the scenes set in the past wherein our hero bravely faces overwhelming odds, battling to the bitter end against hoards of zombies and his immortal nemesis.
So what went wrong? Well lets start with the characters....
The hero in this is to put it mildly, bland at best and was presumably chosen for the part solely based upon his looks. The end result is that given such a boring hero, I found myself actually rooting for the main bad guy in this (who doesn't actually show up until well into the films proceedings!!!) who let's face it, is MUCH cooler anyway!
Aside from our decidedly lacklustre hero we also get 'treated' to some particularly annoying characters throughout this. For one there is a horribly dressed psycho who particularly irritated the hell out of me! I'm sure the actor playing him was having a ball with his zany character but damn - the character was a veritable pain in the ass! Also of (non)note is the annoying, whining, diminutive fool who keeps accidentally shooting his fellow comrades, the peculiarly hopeless woman who is reincarnated along with our leads throughout the centuries and upon whose blood will decide the fate of the world and the pointless addition of a number of peripheral characters such as a pair of comic relief agents.
The film is mainly celebrated as an action fest and admittedly it does deliver some excellent set pieces throughout. However it has to be said that even these get a bit repetitive as time goes on. The stylised gun play as our protagonists empty seemingly limitless rounds into their undead assailants (and at each other!) does become tiresome after the umpteenth time. In addition despite many reviews I have read to the contrary, the martial arts in this are most definitely not as spectacular as I had been led to believe. In fact it is quite clear upon viewing this, that the majority of relevant actors here are not trained martial artists at all (including the lead), instead they are bolstered via various cinematic tricks such as fast editing in order to compensate.
The single biggest flaw in this for me though is the running time which is drastically too long and drags on severely. In fact, had this film been condensed down by about half an hour (or preferably more) I would have awarded this a much higher rating.
Although an overall sadly unfulfilling watch I must however comment on and commend the excellent open ending in this which seems to reverse the main protagonists roles as the 'game' begins again in the future - great stuff (including the souped up swords!)
Whilst highly recommend by so many and boasting such a huge cult following, try as I might, I simply cannot derive the same enjoyment from this that so many others report to have.
Oh well, maybe the supposed sequel will be better....