115. Kamui Gaiden カムイ外伝 (New Movie Review)

Hello, fellow Japanese movie fans. I have recently watched the new Kamui Gaiden film at the Toronto International Film Festival, and here are my thoughts on the film. As many movie-info websites can tell you, this was a big, $18million USD budget ninja fiction film based on a 1960s manga called Kamui. I actually knew about the manga before the film, because I stumbled onto some rare 1980s translated English Kamui manga just a few days before I saw the poster advertisement for Kamui Gaiden the film. I wanted to see action on the big screen, so I went.

... Want the ending and all the summaries fast? Here we go: (SPOILERS ALERT)

I liked the film for its physical aspects. The character's costumes were designed to be very believable 13th century Japan. We often get some crude shots of the sumo-type cloth underwears on male characters, and it gives a nice, down-to-earth feel to the movie. It also gave a very realistic take on what ninjas looked like, and did not cover any ninja's faces with black cowls.

The action scenes were great. There were two major battle scenes in the movie, in the beginning when Kamui was running from ninjas in the forest and managed to kill all of them; and near the end when ninjas attacked Kamui jumping from sandpits on the beach. Both showed off Kamui's ninja skills very well, and gave impressions to the audience that he had what it took to be the protagonist, physically, at least.
The adrenaline rush when people's hands, legs, and heads get cut off is very entertaining, but there were a few random inserts of "action" that did not get my approval. From that point on, I focused more on the negative aspects of the film.

The biggest failure of the film was the director's inability to translate Kamui's background as "outcaste". Two brief flashbacks were used to show how villagers mistreated Kamui and his friends because they were the "hinin", a kind of very low peasant. It is a taboo topic to talk about with Japanese people in the last 150 years since the Meiji Restoration, which officially gave the "hinin" regular citizen status. However, much of the general public still see them as lowly people they would never marry, do business, or have any close relations with. Kamui's character is from that kind of a background, but (although I realize this is a showing in Toronto, not Tokyo) the director assumes the audience automatically sympathizes with Kamui and understand how wonderful Kamui would feel once he was "accepted" into a family (happens in the movie). Instead, we as the audience see an expressionless Kamui and a housewife who could not forget Kamui was her enemy and tried to kill him twice. Finally, Kamui shows his emotional side and cries after the family has been killed by ninjas hunting him. There was just not enough background for the audience to fully engage.

Secondly, related to the first negative (-1), is the development of secondary characters. There are basically five side characters in the film: the lord of the land, Hanbei the fisherman, Hanbei's wife Oshika (former ninja), Hanbei's daughter Sayaka who loves Kamui, and the pirate ninja (final boss battle guy). Out of these, Oshika and Hanbei were given a lot of screen time in the beginning half of the film and were seen as skillful, independent and unique. Hanbei especially, since he cut off the lord's horse's leg in order to make fishing baits (floaters) with the hooves. He almost did not escape the lord's troops, but he did. This act of defiance took up 15min of screen time and later we see the baits in action and there was a bonding scene between Hanbei and Kamui. Suddenly, Hanbei was taken away by troops and order to be shot to death. Kamui and Oshika save him, but he did not even get 2 seconds of screen time afterwards. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHARACTER WHO HAD THE BIGGEST DEFIANT ACT IN THE FILM?! When we next see Hanbei, he's already dead in his home, killed by random ninjas. Oshika, too, after showing her skills in killing 4 ninjas at the beginning of the film, was dead without a fight scene at the end of the film. Did the director run out of time?

Hanbei's daughter Sayaka loved Kamui. That's the romance part of the film. It was a one sided love, however, as Kamui just goes on with his own business and never really engages in deep conversations with Sayaka. Suddenly, we see a development: Sayaka brings Kamui to the seaside and gives him a "sun shell" while she keeps a "moon shell" symbolizing they will always be side by side and joined at the heart. How sweet! Where was the build up to this moment? Kamui NEVER showed any sign of affection for Sayaka prior to that scene. Sayaka soon dies afterwards the same manner Hanbei had died -- we as the audience do not see -- and Kamui cries. Where was all this emotion coming from??? This film fails at incorporating romance.

Thirdly, and this is one flaw in the movie that would most trouble Westerners, the introduction voice-over: "Kamui has done battles with many enemies, but his biggest enemy is himself. His heart does not trust anyone around him... and still he runs" Okay, stop. This is the line that should set the "moral" or "tone" of the film, right? This is when we as the audience think, so this is like also a spiritual journey of Kamui to find the path to opening his heart, right? Wrong. How does the movie end? Let me give you another quote: "Kamui keeps on running". Throughout this movie, we do not see Kamui truely trusting ANYONE, and in the end, it was his distrust that saved him from drinking the poisoned water the traitor ninja gave. So the point of the movie was that when you are a dangerous fugitive, you cannot trust anyone? In that case, what the hell was the introduction narration about?? Was it even necessary?

There are a few more things that weren't very right with the film, mainly due to the fact that the director, Yoichi Sai, is a Korean-Japanese who is only reconstructing an image of the Shinobi, the Ninja from his mind and from media influences (including possibly animes such as Naruto). His image of how the ninjas fight is still generic and predictable. However, I must remember the film was set to release in Japan, so the producers must know audience expectations of the ninja. If I knew more about the original manga portrayal of this outcaste, fugitive ninja named Kamui, I would be in a better shape to speak about the adaptation differences.

On a final, cheerful note: Kamui is definitely a movie that looks better on the big theatre screen, its action sequences and colors, scenery and costumes were all A+ material. It is released in Japan today, and I hope you all enjoy it.

Rating: [7.9/10 (79%)]
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A Review by micr0q (Q), no directly copied text whatsoever. Copyright 2009.