Blade of the Immortal kicks off with an epic outmatched brawl featuring the film’s heroic samurai Manji (Takuya Kimura) facing off against a hoard of sword-wielding enemies. The fight scene, despite some shaky cinematography, is an excellent sequence of non-stop action featuring the same audacious violence director Takashi Miike has been known to provide.
As the Gods Will (DIR. Takashi Miike) Takashi Miike has two modes of filmmaking: a deadly serious style that’s evident in films like Audition, and a goofy, over-the-top style visible in films like Ichi the Killer. In As the Gods Will, it takes the viewer mere minutes to figure out which category Miike’s latest falls into (for me, it was the moment when a student gets decapitated and bleeds red marbles).