Blade of the Immortal (Japan, 2017)

Manji, a highly skilled samurai, becomes cursed with immortality after a legendary battle. Haunted by the brutal murder of his sister, Manji knows that only fighting evil will regain his soul. He promises to help a young girl named Rin avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by ruthless warrior Anotsu.

I get the sense that Takashi Miike really feels self-confident with making more and more samurai movies. Here we are, and yet another bloodbath is upon us. 13 Assassins (2010) showed that Miike can churn out something gory as #!%&*, but still maintain a serious storyline and mature characters. With Blade of the Immortal, which is based on a manga, it's all a lot more comic book-like. There's undead warriors and fighters with super strength you'll only see in, well, a manga. The fights and over-the-top samurai clashes are all very well-done, but it could have benefitted from having maybe a deeper (and shorter) story, and maybe re-write or remove the young girl from the film because she doesn't add anything except screams. 

Still, Blade of the Immortal is an extremely violent and impressive film. If one should have the urge to watch a modern, bloody katana fest, look no further. It also happens to be Miike's 100th film, so congratulations to him!

      

Genre: Action/Drama

The Villainess (South Korea, 2017)

Sook-hee is a trained assassin who was born to kill. She was just a little girl when the training started in Yanbian, China. After the death of her mentor, when the chance of starting a new life was given to her, she came to South Korea as a government agent. They promised her that she will be free after ten years of service. So she begins her new life as a theatre actress. But soon two men Joong-sang and Hyun-soo appear in her new life. And she started to find deep dark secrets about her past.

It's promising when the first few minutes of a film delivers better action scenes than I've seen in at least a year. Holy crap. With some of the coolest fights in such a long way and a story which both has a pulsating tempo and patient for characters to grow a bit (though I would have liked a little bit more humor here), The Villainess is a mighty satisfactory experience. It invokes that special sort of gleefulness I remember getting from seeing Kill Bill (2003) for the first time. Skillful movie-making, a super cool femme fatale for a main character, slick presentation and jaw-dropping action makes this a film you really should give a chance if you're a fan of the genre. 

Genre: Action/Drama