The film begins with our lead meeting up with a mysterious man who tells him that the only way to learn about life is to commit suicide. Oddly, the man goes along with this logic and blows his brains out. He wakes up to find his old body next to him and is told about the history of demons. Hey guys, how about a small amount of setup first? Most films build up to the suicide of their lead character and a giant narrative about bullshit. He is told about a race of demon-human hybrids called Opapatika (hopefully, I spelled that right from memory). They have tremendous powers, but each one comes with a sacrifice. For example, our lead character can see short visions of the future a la Hourman III in DC Comics, but loses one of his regular senses in the process. Eh, sight is overrated anyways. He is told about a group of them that the mentor wants him to track down and kill. Naturally, all of them are extremely powerful. Good luck, buddy.
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The movie gets even weirder early on as it tries to set-up the villains. They show them, explain what their powers are...and then do this again. The second time is with a visual example though, but still. One of them can see your 'death spot' and kill most people in one blow/shot/stab. The trade-off is that he is given the same wound that he gave them later. Another man is immortal, but...well, is moody in that Highlander way. A third man is really super-fast and strong, but only at night. Now we are stealing power ideas from The Legion of Substitute Super Heroes? Wow, that's a first. The fourth man can make a shadow form of himself and attack people. The trade is that he loses bits and bits of his normal form in the process. It seems to me that if you keep summoning an evil version of himself, you are not that concerned about your real one all that much. One look at his face will tell you that he is not conflicted about it either. In his first scene, he actually does really well, but gets caught by the agents working for our hero's mentor. As an aside, these guys dress in full SWAT gear, allowing them to be killed numerous times over and over again. These guys also fail over and over again, making you wonder what their talent exactly is.
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To be honest, the rest of the movie is all sort of a blur to me. It's not that there is no plot- quite the contrary. So much goes on, so quickly and so suddenly that it is hard to follow. There is a plot involving a woman who used to be the immortal one's girlfriend. She seems to know all of the other demon warriors too. At times, they fight each other, while other times they fight together. There is one lead demon hunter who looks and acts pretty bad-ass, taking a guy out even after having his arm cut off! The movie is also extremely gory at times, even lingering on some moments a bit too long for people who have less love for gore than I do. One curiously funny- at least, to me- has our hero use his power, only to find that he does not need to, since no attack is coming. He has to think 'gee, that was worth one of my senses!' Shockingly, the mentor who has always acted a little bit evil proves that he really is when he tries to kill the immortal. Why? To become that himself, of course. Much like Cradle 2 The Grave, the movie constantly cuts between at least three fights at once. Also like that movie, only a couple of them are really important. If you want to know the ending, watch the movie. Mu-ha-ha-ha! The End.
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The film is good, but definitely has its ups and downs. If you are not a fan of long, bloody action scenes, then definitely look elsewhere. Also, the English dubbing is sort of weak, but not the worst that you will find. The movie is also very long and full of lots of plot. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but does make it sort of a fringe thing. As I have mentioned earlier, there is a tendency in films from the Asian market to skew away from the '90 minute format' and make films that are much closer to two hours. This means more character moments to fill out the film and longer action scenes. Whether this is good or bad is purely subjective. Of course, Michael Bay overshoots the whole thing by making films longer than Kurosawa used to and still making them shit. As for this movie, it is lot of action, loads of plot and a giant pile of strange back-story. Takes that for what you will.
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Up next, a week-long event that celebrates China's love of both action and its hatred of logic. Stay tuned...
Not typically something I would pick up on my own, but I would be willing to give it a shot. One movie I was very surprised with was Casshern, aka Mega Man fights a bunch of Final Fantasy mechs
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