Director: Keishi Otomo
Notable Cast: Takeru Satoh, Kasumi Arimura, Issey
Takahashi, Nijiro Murakami, Masanobu Ando, Kazuki Kitamura, Yosuke Eguchi, Towa
Araki, Shima Onishi, Takahiro Fujimoto
With the fifth and (possibly) final installment of the
Japanese box office juggernaut series, Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning
might be one of the boldest ways to cap off a franchise. After the successful
trilogy run previously, the series came back with what constitutes a two-part
finale. The first portion of that, Rurouni Kenshin: The Final, was only
released a handful of months prior to this one and acts as a final stamp on the
series. It gives the red-haired wandering swordsman his peace to cap off a
rather remarkable character arc that covered four films and featured some of
the best action set pieces of the series, a bombastic set of spectacle-driven
moments, and all of the characters that fans loved. It was the feather in the
cap of one of action cinema’s most balanced and effective franchises.
In the fourth film though, there are flashbacks to an origin
for the titular character, Kenshin, that are the core for this prequel. Hence
the title, Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning. Just in case there may be
those who are new to the series or simply want to know just how upfront the
filmmakers wanted to be with this entry. Yes, this fifth entry is a prequel to
the entire series and, no, it does not suffer at all from the narrative
setbacks and leaps of logic that plague so many prequels.
To be frank, The Beginning might be the most daring
in its tone, atmosphere, and artistic merits of the series. It’s an almost
fully different experience than the others, cinematically speaking, and yet is
the perfect lead-in for the story, character, and narrative build for all of
the rest. It’s incredibly well-executed and ranks up there as one of the
best.