It is telling when you are barely 30 minutes into a film and you are already inured to the sight of severed limbs, thudding wetly on to the blood-sodden earth as swords whizz above like helicopter rotors. The latest picture from the prolific Japanese genre director Takashi Miike, Blade of the Immortal is an eye-wateringly violent tale of revenge set in a time when samurai roam the country.
It’s a stylish slash fest, which delivers visceral thrills along with quietly striking moments of beauty. I was struck by an exquisite shot in which Manji (Takuya Kimura), the reluctantly immortal warrior, stands amid hundreds of slain warriors while a curlicue of smoke wafts in the foreground and a bird’s song breaks through the deathly silence.
But for all the action and the vividly drawn villians – an effete, floppy-fringed killer with J-pop boy band looks was particularly entertaining, although not wholly convincing – the relentless slaughter gets a little wearing by the end of the second hour.
