I watched both this film and its predecessor from end to end without getting up once or feeling in any way bored.There are subtitles, unless, of course, you speak Japanese but I found this film, like the first, so engrossing they hardly felt like any effort at all. Combine this with solid, original storytelling, good pace and some novel plot twists and turns and you have a very engaging action flick. The key fight scenes between central hero's and villains are of the highest caliber and its these moments of stirring swordplay and martial skill that make this film really shine. Especially when you consider the large scale and numbers of people involved in many of the battles scenes scattered throughout the film.
The conspicuous fight scenes, as was the case in the first outing, remain remarkably polished and exceptionally well choreographed. The violence is a little more intense too and occasionally sadistic but not overly graphic.
This film is darker and more serious than its predecessor, possessing somewhat less humour. I watched the first and enjoyed it immensely so I decided to give the second a go. Its my understanding this is the second in the live, as opposed to animated, Rurouni Kehshin series of films. Of course, there are always a few genuinely vile villains and these are dispatched with the swords sharpened edge. Rurouni has come to see the wastefulness of taking human life, choosing, instead, to take a less lethal approach to subduing the bad guys with the blunt edge of a double edged sword. The key character Rurouni Kenshin could best be described as a reformed Samurai. These films follow the Samurai formula but depart from the norm in so much as they actively downplay the brutality in favour of a more peaceful, hopeful message. It was a pleasant surprise therefore to encounter the Rurouni Kenshin series.
The blood, brutality and cruelty that inhabits many of the films in this genre is, at times, very disturbing.
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