User Reviews

With my admiration and fascination with the Asian cinema, of course I opted to sit down and watch the 2018 movie "Red Blade", as I happened to stumble upon it by random luck here in 2023. I had actually never heard about the movie, so I didn't know what I was in for, and thus had no expectations to the movie either.

The storyline in "Red Blade", as written by Toshiki Kimura and Sion Sono, was pretty straight forward. Nothing grand or overly spectacular. But at least it made for an adequate enough viewing experience, however you're not really left wishing for more. And that makes "Red Blade" a movie that you will watch only once, then bag and tag it, never to bring it out for a second viewing.

The acting performances in "Red Blade" were as you would expect from a movie of this caliber. Sure, you're not in for an evening of Shakespearian theater here, that's for sure. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but they had an adequate cast ensemble here. The performances were fair enough.

And wait until you see the amazingly awkward and stiff kissing scene between Mako and the girl that bullies her, it was absolutely toe-curling and cringeworthy. I have never seen a more awkward kiss on the screen before.

There is a permeating amateurish and home-made-video feel to the entire movie, and that definitely takes away from the overall enjoyment that there would otherwise have been to the movie. But I have seen far worse and more amateurish attempts at movie making than what director Takahiro Ishihara did here with "Red Blade".

There are far better sword-fighting fantasy movies on the Asian market, and "Red Blade" failed to make a splash, much less stand out from numerous other movies.

My rating of director Takahiro Ishihara's 2018 movie lands on a bland four out of ten stars.

Not sure why Hollywood struggles to make movies like this one. Its martial arts but it isn't. A drama with some funny scenes. The action that in Hollywood is usually only for that, here can be used for comedy, drama or part of the plot. Its nor really a martial arts movie. More martial arts used as part of the story. Mako the main character is played very well but never over the top. The fight scenes were good without the gore & violence (there is some but its fine for older children) for gore's sake. The scenery is not big budget tho never was missing anything. The direction & script are great. A full story, well told without feeling like you are missing something. often you feel in these kind of movies like something was left out in order to make the story believable. There are a couple of edits that could have been smoother otherwise I might have given it 10 stars. I know I'll watch this again. I know there are critics that reviewed this movie poorly. I think they are looking for a more Hollywood approach with more production & characters. But they totally miss the point. If they did the big production, you would have lost the qualities & charm that make this movie so enjoyable. Even the ending was not predictable. Neither was the entire movie. No Hollywood ending either. Just another thing that made me enjoy this movie so much. The story has its ups & downs & ups & downs & ups. Its been a while since I enjoyed a movie this much. I will have to seek out other movies by Takahiro Ishihara, the director.