| Osamu Tezuka is often heralded
as the “father of manga” because
of his early, immense popularity and influence
with such titles as Astro Boy and Black
Jack. He remains greatly beloved long
after his death, and cartoon series, video
animations, and movies continue to be made
based on his work. Despite his enormous influence
in Japan, in the United States he remains
relatively unpopular—to the extent that
Disney could make a bastardized version of
his classic Kimba the White Lion story
and claim it as an “original”
tale in 1994's The Lion King with little
comment. These days, in the U.S. most fans
probably recognize his name connected with
the animated Metropolis
(2001) movie or the ubiquitous Astro Boy
and its instantly recognizable style, but
Tezuka created a wide variety of stories in
his graphic novels—including the gruesome
supernatural samurai tale, Dororo,
which was made into a live-action feature
in 2007.
As the story goes, brutal warlord
Kagemitsu Daigo (Kiichi Nakai, Onmyoji
II) is having a hard time ravaging
the countryside and is, like many brutal warlords
would be, more than a little peeved about
his lack of progress in world domination.
Daigo happens to take refuge in a temple devoted
to 48 demons. Those demons are the talkative
sort, and soon communicate with him through
a dead rat, promising him world domination
in exchange for his son—each demon taking
a part of the boy’s body in order to
manifest themselves in the land of the living.
Daigo agrees, and his body is imbued with
demonic energy via a scar on his forehead
ala Harry Potter.
Fast forward to the future,
and it turns out Daigo’s son miraculously
survived, traveling the land as a single minded
demon hunter by the name of Hyakkimaru (Satoshi
Tsumabuki, Water
Boys). Hyakkimaru is no ordinary human
being, however; his body was reconstructed
by a kind doctor and is now immortal, and
he has swords imbedded deep inside his arms.
Basically, his forearms are now used as sheaths;
whenever he wants to use his swords, he has
to cut off his own arms. Then, after bisecting
any demon scum that dares face him, he just
reattaches his arms again and goes on his
way. After each demon is killed, however,
some original body part re-grows painfully
into his body, replacing one of his unnaturally
immortal organs—at one point he vomits
up a lung, for example, as his natural lung
grows in its place. Hyakkimaru is joined on
his quest by Dororo (Kou Shibasaki, One
Missed Call), an itinerant thief with
a vendetta against Hyakkimaru’s father.
Together they face an army of demons and a
bloodthirsty king who will stop at nothing
to spread his hegemony throughout the world—and
with each demon Hyakkimaru kills, he grows
weaker as his immortal body is weakened with
very mortal flesh…
Obviously the story is very
dark, but it wears its manga origins well,
presenting ludicrous event after ludicrous
event in a fast-moving kinetic narrative that
never becomes boring. Hyakkimaru faces off
against a long series of demon-creatures in
stylized, over-the-top combat, and the dark
elements are always offset by more comedic
moments usually centered around the hapless
Dororo. It’s kind of like a supernatural
version of Azumi without the relentlessly
dark tone and a lot more monsters. For those
who like Japanese fantasy films with lots
of beasties, Dororo really delivers.
As to be expected in a movie
of this sort, character development is not
exactly the focus of the story, although Hyakkimaru
and Dororo do grow in their relationship,
and both of them have definite character arcs
that culminate in the climax. Unfortunately,
some very crucial character changes seem undermotivated
by the story, which weakens the effectiveness
of the story.
That being said, there is a
lot to enjoy. Tsumabuki plays Hyakkimaru initially
as a nigh-emotionless killing machine who
slowly grows a heart, so to speak. I’m
not a big fan of Tsumabuki’s work, but
he pulls a great deal of sympathy out of the
stoic Hyakkimaru character and manages to
be fairly intimidating occasionally even with
his baby face. Kou Shibasaki, in my opinion,
is a lot of fun as Dororo, basically
taking on the movements and vocal intonations
of a modern-day Japanese gangster. Her performance
is kind of like a riff off of Anna Tsuchiya’s
Ichiko character from Kamikaze
Girls (2004). (Incidentally, Tsuchiya
makes a guest appearance in Dororo
as a butterfly demon presiding over a brood
of baby-eating caterpillars. No joke.) Shibasaki
can occasionally get a little shrill, but
she lends some much-needed humanity and cheer
to the often grotesque storytelling.
Kiichi Nakai as the evil warlord
Daigo, on the other hand, proves to be suitably
evil and merciless, but because of the way
the story is structured, he goes missing from
the narrative for a very long stretch as Hyakkimaru
hacks up a legion of demons. Daigo simply
doesn’t do much in the film, although
it doesn’t matter too much because the
story moves so fast with plenty of flash and
bang.
Speaking of the special effects,
they are definitely mixed in this offering,
with the general trend being towards “awful.”
Lots of lens filters cast an unearthly feel
over the entire movie, which is kind of neat,
but then the monsters show up. A lot of sub-Sci-Fi
Channel CGI work is used to create the blurry,
fast-moving demon creatures; when it’s
not bad CGI, it’s equally poor suitmation
beasts. The monster suits are rubbery and
awful—and therefore terribly endearing
to a kaiju-loving dork like me. Make no mistake,
the effects are never particularly special,
but they are a lot of fun for monster lovers,
and any thick-skinned kaiju fan should get
plenty of enjoyment from the proceedings.
Music is completely unmemorable.
For some reason, much of the music is very
low key, providing little more than a backbeat
to the action. Some of the cues are inappropriate,
sometimes bordering on electronica, and one
particularly long combat montage is put to
a monotonous tribal chant that adds no tension
to the action but rather becomes somewhat
annoying after a while.
Dororo is an unapologetically
goofy fantasy-horror-samurai film. Despite
the excessive gory elements, somehow the film
never equals the sheer brutality of some of
Ryunosuke Kitamura’s similar work. I’m
not a big fan of gory flicks with demonic
themes, but this one is nevertheless surprisingly
charming, even with a spotty and weak story.
Dororo is a guilty pleasure for sure—if
you have the guts to stomach it.
|
(3.5/5)