Rurôni Kenshin: Kyôto taika-hen (2014)

Rurôni Kenshin: Kyôto taika-hen is a movie starring Takeru Satoh, Emi Takei, and Tatsuya Fujiwara. Kenshin Himura goes up against pure evil Makoto Shishio who is attempting to overthrow the Meiji government. The fate of the country hangs in the balance as Kenshin Himura takes up the sword that he vowed to never draw again.

Director:

Keishi Ohtomo

Writers:

Nobuhiro Watsuki (manga), Sean Whitley (english version)

Stars:

Takeru Satoh, Emi Takei, Tatsuya Fujiwara

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Takeru Satoh	...	Kenshin Himura (as Takeru Satô)
Emi Takei	...	Kaoru Kamiya
Tatsuya Fujiwara	...	Makoto Shishio
Yôsuke Eguchi	...	Hajime Saito
Yûsuke Iseya	...	Aoshi Shinomori
Munetaka Aoki	...	Sanosuke Sagara
Yû Aoi	...	Megumi Takani
Ryûnosuke Kamiki	...	Sojiro Seta
Tao Tsuchiya	...	Makimachi Misao
Min Tanaka	...	Kashiwazaki Nenji
Kazufumi Miyazawa	...	Toshimichi Ookubo
Yukiyoshi Ozawa	...	Ito Hirobumi
Ken'ichi Takitô	...	Sadojima Hoji
Ryosuke Miura	...	Sawagejo Cho
Tomomi Maruyama

Storyline

Makoto, an assassin who once was contracted by the government, has since become obsessed with tearing it down. Formerly, Kenshin was mainly concerned with protecting Kaoru, but the stakes are now higher as he struggles to protect the nation itself.

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Plot Keywords:

dojo | japan | 19th century | 1870s | kyoto japan | 

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Taglines:

Revenge of the fallen assassin.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

US Theatrical Site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

1 August 2014 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Didysis Kioto gaisras

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Amuse, Shueisha

Technical Specs

Runtime:

138 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Based on the manga Rurouni kenshin

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Goofs

When Kenshin rides out to save Kaoru, he makes it to Shishio's ship in one night. Kyoto is an inland city. The sea is almost 50 km away in Osaka. Yet, the movie makes it seem like he reaches the sea in mere minutes.

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Quotes

Kenshin Himura: The dead wish only that the living be happy.

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Connections

Follows Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku roman tan (2012)

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Soundtracks

World on Fire
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators
World on Fire
Written by: Slash and Myles Kennedy
Dik Hayd International

User Reviews

Finally! Live-action catches up to Anime!

Asian studios have been trying to adapt manga/anime to live-action for decades. They all failed.

Finally, we can call all this pre-Rurouni Kenshin. The first movie had some flaws, some unbalance, but it ultimately delivered. Now, Kyoto Inferno is a great 2nd part leading the way to The Legend Ends.

The Shishio Makoto story-arc is super long in the manga. All the Juppongatana mini-story arcs were left behind because of that. This makes it possible to condense it to 2 movies.

So, do not expect deeper character development. The movie decided to focus on the very specific attempt to bring down the government and undo the Meiji Ishin (by the way, do read about it at Wikipedia, go look for the terms "Bakumatsu", "Meiji Restoration" and you will understand better the background about Sekigahara, Toba-Fushimi, and you will feel less lost in case you don't know Japanese History).

If you watched the anime or read the mangas (which I highly recommend), you will easily feel in the gaps with what you already know. The movie stitches together several memorable scenes from the source material.

Some parts had to be adapted, of course, and I think they did a good job, specially on how they fit the Oniwabanshu. Not sure how the Aoshi story-arc will fit in the next movie.

This movie had to remove several stuff from the source material in order not to look silly in a live-action, such as the special moves, screaming attacks ("Ryuutsuisen!"). But I'm most interested in how they will fit Kenshin's mentor of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu on the next movie (in the manga he will teach him the ultimate moves, Kuzuryuusen and Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki). He does show up very quickly so it's going to interesting how this unfolds.

The relationship of Kenshin and Kaoru, of course, had to be diluted to the bare minimum to give Kenshin the motivation to go forward (it was already diluted in the source material).

All in all, the filmography is superb, the casting is spot on, the story adaptation was very competent to compress a very complex source material.

If you're already a fan of the series, you will not be disappointed. If you're new to the series, this could motivate you to go read the original.