Rurouni Kenshin: Part 1

 

I watched this with Mick after seeing it mentioned on a stuntmen channel I follow. It gets a lot of kudos for replicating 2D-animated combat with all the verve and speed of the original, and as so far as I've seen, it delivers. It's based off an anime that's part cartoon, part historical fiction, and it's pretty good. It's basically The Last Samurai from a different perspective. 

The Last Samurai is about Tom Cruise's character just not liking America and getting away from it. Kenshin, in contrast, is about someone who loves his home country and struggles to find the best way to help it. Rurouni Kenshin translates to "the traveling samurai Kenshin", and is about a legendary swordsman learning to use his skill without the brutality he employed previously. It's not so much a rejection of war as it is an attempt to understand it, and to contemplate a world with less violence. It's pretty good. 

If you're an anime fan - that means if you've liked Naruto or Attack on Titan or Death Note or whatever - then you'll like this film. If you liked The Last Samurai, you'll like this film. If you like historical fiction or cool sword fights or handsome Japanese actors, you'll like this film. It's rated R for blood, so heads up, but it's not gratuitous. It's good!

WandaVision - Episodes 3 and 4

 

WandaVision is shaping up to be just as good as its film predecessor.

Source: Marvel

As Wandavision strips away the mystery, we find a sci-fi story tinged with horror. After a third episode of homages - this time to seventies shows like The Brady Bunch - Episode Four pulls back the curtain; set in the "real" world and revealing the conceit of the previous episodes. We see some old characters - Darcy Lewis from Thor and Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man - but also get a new eye in Monica Rambeau (pictured), who serves as the newcomer and audience surrogate. Marvel's mix of plot talk, character moments, and relatability is on point with her. 

Monica (Teyonnah Paris) and Jimmy (Randall Park) contemplate the mystery.

Source: Marvel

While little can be said without spoilers, the show is clearly building up to something, and is using its serialized form to build maximum suspense. Moments we couldn't bother with in film are drawn out to leave us guessing, and references to the wider world are thrown in like Easter eggs. The opening of Episode Four, in particular, gives us an on-the-ground perspective of a Marvel event that saddens and surprises, and the Wanda-centered main plot is slowly becoming gutting.

At almost halfway through its nine-episode run, WandaVision is shaping up to be just as good as its predecessors, and a good herald of what's to come.