Brief Story Line
Story was set in 19th Century Japan during the Meiji restoration period where Samurai were no longer allowed to hold sword and were forced to change profession. Shujiro Saga (Junichi Okada - Hell Dogs: In The House of Bamboo, SP TV series etc) former great Samurai had been living normal life and married with two children. However when cholera hit their village and his family were all sick, Shujiro decided to join a mysterious contest held in Kyoto where the winner would receive large prize that should help for their medication.
Apparently the game (later referred to as Kokodu), required all participants to fight and kill one another in several stages until reaching their ultimate destination in Tokyo. Shujiro who was surprised to see the inexperienced Futaba Katsuki (Yumia Fujisaki - The Parades, Ignite TV series etc) decided to protect her along the way, even though he had to fight other great fighters including Bukotsu (Hideaki Ito - Umizaru, Tokyo Vice TV series etc) who was hell bent on killing him. They met with other participants such as the mysterious Kyojin (Masahiro Higashide - Demon City, Death Note: New Generation TV series etc), the only other female fighter Ihora (Kaya Kiyohara - 18 x 2 Beyond Youthful Days, Here Comes Asa! TV series etc), the young Shinnosuke (Jyo Kairi - The Promised Neverland, Shoplifters etc) and fought with others as well. Despite the game behing held in secret, the government got info about it and appointed the Police Chief Toshiyoshi Kawaji (Gaku Hamada - Keishicho Outsiders TV series etc) to investigate.
So what would happen to Shujiro and why was the game conducted & who was the master mind behind it? You could find out in the first season of this series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I saw this series in the coming soon section of Netflix, I was immediately interested as it looked to have lots of sword fight scenes. And it certainly lived up to my expectation. The opening scene of the first episode already made me in awe as despite it was only few minutes, but the one-shot sequence where the camera continued following Shujiro was really amazing, especially with surprisingly very graphic violent scenes (you would know what I meant once you see it) and the way it ended. After that, the story understandably slowed down to provide more background and context on our protagonist abrupt change to life. But it did not take that long before the game was introduced and the intensity was felt again.
Subsequent episodes would show plenty of fight scenes but the thing that made it suspenseful was the ruthlessness of the game coordinator which actually reminded me a bit of Squid Game. Anyway as the story progressed, we were introduced to more and more participants. The ones that I mentioned above were just a few, but aside from them there were also several others whom I believed would have more significance in -hopefully- second season. Anyway the other fighters included Kamuykyocha (Shota Sometani - Suzume etc) who was very good in archery, the vicious Gentosai (Hiroshi Abe - TRICK TV series etc), Ihora's siblings Sansuke (Yuya Endo - Rocket Boys TV series etc) & Shigura (Taichi Saotome - The Sealer TV series etc) and the amazing mysterious swordsman shown in the last episode (Ryusei Yokohama - Faceless etc). There were also several cast in support & minor roles such as Riho Yoshioka (House of Ninjas TV series etc) as Shujiro's wife Shino, Takayuki Yamada (Land of Tanabata TV series etc) as Kyoto police chief Jinbe Ando and few others.
Obviously the star of this series was Junichi Okada. He is a real martial arts practicioner and even compete several times in tournaments, so it's no surprise that he was also credited as action choreographer (and producer). The series was adapted from novel of same title by Shogo Imamura which was also adapted into manga ilustrated by Katsumi Tatsuzawa. The screenwriter Michihito Fujii was also the director of first, second and sixth episode. Yes it was indeed only having 6 episodes with duration between 47-58 minutes with my favorite, the finale as it got some great showdowns that just made me excited for the next season. Hence it did not take long to finish watching the whole season.
The fight scenes were not the only thing that was great to my opinion. I think the story telling was good as well plus the characters mostly had some signifcance to the plot. It certainly look to have high production value with wonderful costume design and so many extras, plus creation of the setting for late 19th century Japan. I read that critics were impressed with the series while audience seemed to embrace it too as it made to the global top charts after almost a week of release. In the end, this is definitely a must watch if you are fan of historical period series where the sword fight scenes were visually striking and meticulously done by actual martial artist with interesting story plus engaging characters. I am just hopeful it would not take long before the announcement of renewal by Netflix. So if you are audience who like such attributes, you can definitely give this a try, but just prepare yourself with some graphic violence. Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment