Blade of the Immortal

Blade of the Immortal (originally Mugen no junin) is a Japanese live-action film directed by Takashi Miike, released in 2017 and also his hundredth feature film. It premiered out of competition at the Cannes festival in May 2017. It is based on Hiroaki Samura's manga, which Kodansha published in Monthly Afternoon magazine from 1993 to 2012, in 30 volumes in total. The main character is the samurai Manji, who cannot die: in the source work he owes this to sacred bloody worms (kessen-chu), which can even reattach severed limbs. Manji becomes the protector of the orphan Rin Asano, who wants to take revenge on the swordsmen of the Itto-ryu school for the death of her parents. Manji is played by Takuya Kimura, Rin by Hana Sugisaki and the Itto-ryu leader Kagehisa Anotsu by Sota Fukushi. The film is built on sword fighting, but not on a faithful reconstruction of Japanese swordsmanship: Itto-ryu and the rival Mugai-ryu are schools invented for the manga, not historical traditions. According to a Cinema Sentries review, the film rests on two mass fights, one at the start against a hundred opponents and one at the end against about 300 men. Samura, the source author, had earlier turned down offers from Hollywood over the typical Western alterations, and was satisfied with Miike's adaptation.

Martial arts in this work

Fight choreography

According to a Variety review, the stunt coordination was led by Keiji Tsuji and Masayoshi Deguchi. Variety describes the fights as rough, with stabbing and limbs flying through the air, driven by a free style that consciously departs from traditional Japanese swordsmanship. A Cinema Sentries review of the disc's bonus materials says that the effects rest mainly on practical stunt work, and it captures how Takuya Kimura advises Hana Sugisaki on her fight scenes during shooting. The final mass fight was filmed in Kyoto and was the most demanding part of the production. We did not find any evidence in the sources on whether the lead actors actually practise any martial art.

Fact and fiction

The swordsmanship in the film has no model in a specific historical school. In the source work, Itto-ryu is a school that accepts any technique leading to victory and occupies other people's dojo; Mugai-ryu uses ruthless methods and employs prisoners condemned to death in the service of the shogunate. Both are fictions of the manga and must not be confused with real swordsmanship traditions of a similar name. The distance from reality is also increased by the weaponry, which Variety calls flamboyant: giant double-bladed swords, an axe resembling a sharp anvil, blades on poles and on chains, and shuriken.

People and martial arts

• Takashi MiikeDirector
• Takuya KimuraActor — as Manji· Koryu Bujutsu (portrays the art on screen)
• Hana SugisakiActor — as Rin Asano· Koryu Bujutsu (portrays the art on screen)
• Sota FukushiActor — as Kagehisa Anotsu· Koryu Bujutsu (portrays the art on screen)
• Keiji TsujiStunt coordinator
• Masayoshi DeguchiStunt coordinator