Sword of the Stranger (2007)
"Sutorenjia: Mukô hadan" (original title)

A swordsman from a strange land is caught in a struggle between morality, righteousness, and devotion as he reluctantly agrees to take a raggedy boy and his dog to a remote, Buddhist temple.

Director:

Masahiro Andô

Writer:

Fumihiko Takayama

Stars:

Yuri Chinen, Tomoya Nagase, Kyle Rideout

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Yuri Chinen	...	Kotaro (voice)
Tomoya Nagase	...	Nanashi (voice)
Kyle Rideout	...	Feng-Wu (voice)
Naoto Takenaka	...	Shoan (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Rarou (voice)
Akio Ôtsuka	...	Shogen Itadori (voice)

Storyline

A young boy and his dog find themselves the target of the Ming: a foreign dynasty that will stop at nothing. One day, a quiet and solemn warrior crosses their path, and becomes irrevocably connected with the two. A deal is struck and the warrior agrees to take the boy to a remote, Buddhist temple, where a kind monk is waiting to care for him and the dog. Unfortunately, the Ming have sent their elite, and they will test their strength, courage, and quality every step of the way.

---

Plot Keywords:

dog | warrior | swordsman | flashback | espionage | 

---

Taglines:

Some men kill in order to live. Some don't need a reason...

---

Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

5 February 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sword of the Stranger

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bones

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Luo-Lang: Use this, pain go away.
Nanashi: I don't need it. I feel like having the pain is what makes you feel alive.

User Reviews

Most detailed animation i ever seen

One of the most outstanding action animation movies.

(sorry if you are confused with my comments cause i'm not a native English speaker :>)

The storyline is quite simple and unlike the other tedious Japanese animation movies, the audience don't need to smash their head onto the wall to get an idea about what's going on. Actually the only down side of the movie is you can guess the ending more or less at the beginning.

The blood spilling scenes are very astonishing, and the Chinese swordsmen who take secret pills and never feel pains will give you chill in the bones with their cruelty.

Actually In real history, the famous emperor who sacrifice his people to find a medicine of Immortality, is Yíng Zhèng, the first emperor (we call him Qin Shi Huang)of a unified China from 221 BCE to 210 BCE. Later in his life, Qin Shi Huang feared death and desperately sought the fabled elixir of life, visiting Zhifu Island several times to this end. He even sent a Zhifu islander Xu Fu with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of Mount Penglai, where the Eight Immortals lived. These people never returned, as they knew that if they returned without the promised elixir, they would surely be executed. Legends claim that they settled down in one of the Japanese islands, a view that many Chinese and Japanese people are familiar with today. (from HTTP://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang)

Although the movie is mainly animated in 2D, the 3D effects used in scenes are perfect and only used when necessary, It's more practical 3D than showing off the techniques.

Music used in the movie is extraordinary, you can actually feel the cold wind passing by your face and hear the echos among the mountains. Bamboo flute used in the music gives an amazing oriental feeling throughout the movie.

As a native Chinese speaker, i think the Chinese dialogue reflects the way people talking at that time pretty well, but sometimes they speak Japanese as well, which breaks the reality of the movie, hope they could manage to get more voice casters in Chinese.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in actions, orient myths or violent scenes.