Rurouni Kenshin: The Final - The Fourth and Still Exciting Live Adaptation Movie of the Popular Manga Series

Rurouni Kenshin movies were something that interest me but I did not get the chance to see them years ago when they played in Indonesian cinemas. So when the first film was released on Netflix, naturally I gave it a try and I loved it. However, I was disappointed after I found out the 2nd and 3rd movies were not shown on Netflix. Hence when this film was released, I hesitated to watch it as I prefer to have seen the predecessors. Yesterday though, I decided to watch this movie and continued with the 5th and final film. All right, I'll head on to it now.

Brief Story Line

Few years after the event of Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, the wanderer Himura Kenshin (Takeru Satoh -  Inuyashiki etc) was still living at the Dojo owned by Ms. Kaoru (Emi Takei - For Love's Sake etc). Together with the warrior Sagara Sanosuke (Munetaka Aoki - Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai etc), the Doctor Takani Megumi (Yu Aoi - Hula Girls etc) and the young Yahiko (Riku Onishi), they were enjoying the peaceful life in Tokyo.

But when the Shanghai mafia leader Yukishiro Enishi (Mackenyu Arata - Chihayafuru trilogy, Kaiji: Final Game etc) started to wreak havoc in Tokyo, Kenshin had no choice but to face this latest threat. With the help from the police and officer Saito Hajime (Yosuke Eguchi - Tokyo Love Story TV series etc), Kenshin and Sanosuke tried to stop Enishi and his gang who apparently had personal vendetta on Kenshin. 

So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this exciting full action movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Just like in previous Kenshin movies, this one is filled with so many action sequence with various sword fight scenes that were absolutely awesome. Every fight was satisfying to watch as they were well choreographed. And if you read the various information of the Kenshin movies, you would know that Takeru Satoh did almost the entire stunt himself, making it even more admirable and satisfying. Obviously there would be some special effects used, but what I loved the most was it was greatly created that they looked real.

This movie had duration of more than 2 hours which gave sufficient time to enjoy the story development as well as the fights. It also has the pattern like in the first 3 movies where it has several fights in the first 1.5 hours with an amazing climax in the last half hour or so. Once again the director Keishi Otomo (director of Museum, Ryomaden TV series etc) had done fantastic job of combining the drama and the action. I personally feel his capability of directing the fights sequence was quite extraordinary.

From what I understand, the plot in this film was following the final arc of the manga series by Nobuhiro Watsuki but said to be having different story. As I have not read the manga, I could not say what the differences are. Nevertheless, whether it's different or same, I still like the story in here, especially when we were shown a bit on Kenshin's past. One more thing that I liked was how the romance between Kenshin and Kaoru develop in a such a mild manner, so typical of the East culture.

Btw, there were few other characters from the previous installments who appeared in this film, such as Makimachi Misao (Tao Tsuchiya - Alice in Borderland TV series etc), Shinomori Aoshi (Yusuke Iseya - Shinjuku Swan etc) and another surprising character that I never thought of. The rest of the main cast as usual were perfect in their roles, specifically Takeru Satoh who I feel that if Kenshin was a real person, it would be like how he portrayed him. 

Overall, this fourth installment in the Rurouni Kenshin series felt like the end, especially with that final scene. Which made me curious what kind of story would they tell in the fifth movie, but that's for another post. In conclusion, even after 3 movies, I still felt the film gave me the satisfaction of having seen the "adventure", the story of Kenshin and his new found friends and obviously the magnificent fight scenes which could be too bloody and violent for some audience. So if you like the manga, or the anime series and you have watched the previous films, do not miss this one to complete your experience.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars