Vancouver 09: KAMUI Review
[Our thanks to Teresa Nieman for the following review.]
The first thing you should know going into Kamui is that it is immensely silly. If the trailers, stills, or reviews have led you to believe otherwise and you don't think you'd enjoy a silly ninja movie, then skip it. Seriously. We're talking ninja-cutting-a-giant-shark-into-three-pieces-in-mid-air silly. Strangely-out-of-place-pirate-jokes silly. CGI-so-clunky-it-looks-like-stop-motion silly. It also, unless the filmmakers and actors were smoking something really potent and had no sense of reality, has got to be intentionally silly. If you can jive with that, then Kamui is an absolute hoot.
An all-star cast, headlined by Kenichi Matsuyama as Kamui, make up a ragtag motley crew of ninjas, ex-ninjas, fisherman, and feudal knights. The plot isn't so much a story as it is a series of amusing and exciting events surrounding our titular hero. Even Kamui himself is only supplied with a wisp of backstory, announced via narration. Apparently, he grew up poor, became a ninja, and shortly after that...a fugitive ninja. Whatever that means. It's all just an excuse to have him hunted down by armies and rival groups--because, hey, the one-man-vs.-a-whole-bunch thing always looks cool in movies.
The silliness I talked about is introduced right away, as Kamui performs ridiculous secret ninja moves while flying through tree branches, aided by unconvincing CGI. The narrator provides audio exclaimation points by saying things like "Kamui's secret move: mirage attack!" after each increasingly laughable technique. By now the audience had become accustomed to what the movie was, and we were all having a great time getting the jokes.
Eventually, Kamui winds up living in a peaceful fishing village with a family of five, of which the mother just happens to be a fellow fugitive ninja that Kamui tangled with over a decade ago. Their relationship is strained, but they ultimately join forces and learn to like each other just in time for the movie to move on to its next chapter: pirates and sharks! I don't think I need to say anymore than that. But really, for someone who had no stock in this movie and had never read the manga, I had a ball. Then again, I'm sure seeing it in a packed theater where we all cheered and laughed together had something to do with it. I can easily see this being not nearly as fun at home, alone, on DVD.
Still, I'm hard-pressed to say why Kamui is being marketed as anything other than the insanely fun/funny popcorn epic that it is. The Kung-Fu Hustle crowd would eat this up--but instead, so far, the reactions just seem disappointed and confused from fans of the manga or people expecting something like Crouching Tiger. It's a shame, because it's not the sort of thing that deserves to be maligned. Even Vancouver's own festival guide described it as the "best ninja movie ever made," without the faintest hint of how dizzyingly wacky it is. I can see how someone could hate this if they had their heart set on something that it's never going to be. I hate when people advise a viewer to leave their brain at the door when going in, but in this case, you will definitely have to leave behind your cynicism.
Review by Teresa Nieman
The first thing you should know going into Kamui is that it is immensely silly. If the trailers, stills, or reviews have led you to believe otherwise and you don't think you'd enjoy a silly ninja movie, then skip it. Seriously. We're talking ninja-cutting-a-giant-shark-into-three-pieces-in-mid-air silly. Strangely-out-of-place-pirate-jokes silly. CGI-so-clunky-it-looks-like-stop-motion silly. It also, unless the filmmakers and actors were smoking something really potent and had no sense of reality, has got to be intentionally silly. If you can jive with that, then Kamui is an absolute hoot.
An all-star cast, headlined by Kenichi Matsuyama as Kamui, make up a ragtag motley crew of ninjas, ex-ninjas, fisherman, and feudal knights. The plot isn't so much a story as it is a series of amusing and exciting events surrounding our titular hero. Even Kamui himself is only supplied with a wisp of backstory, announced via narration. Apparently, he grew up poor, became a ninja, and shortly after that...a fugitive ninja. Whatever that means. It's all just an excuse to have him hunted down by armies and rival groups--because, hey, the one-man-vs.-a-whole-bunch thing always looks cool in movies.
The silliness I talked about is introduced right away, as Kamui performs ridiculous secret ninja moves while flying through tree branches, aided by unconvincing CGI. The narrator provides audio exclaimation points by saying things like "Kamui's secret move: mirage attack!" after each increasingly laughable technique. By now the audience had become accustomed to what the movie was, and we were all having a great time getting the jokes.
Eventually, Kamui winds up living in a peaceful fishing village with a family of five, of which the mother just happens to be a fellow fugitive ninja that Kamui tangled with over a decade ago. Their relationship is strained, but they ultimately join forces and learn to like each other just in time for the movie to move on to its next chapter: pirates and sharks! I don't think I need to say anymore than that. But really, for someone who had no stock in this movie and had never read the manga, I had a ball. Then again, I'm sure seeing it in a packed theater where we all cheered and laughed together had something to do with it. I can easily see this being not nearly as fun at home, alone, on DVD.
Still, I'm hard-pressed to say why Kamui is being marketed as anything other than the insanely fun/funny popcorn epic that it is. The Kung-Fu Hustle crowd would eat this up--but instead, so far, the reactions just seem disappointed and confused from fans of the manga or people expecting something like Crouching Tiger. It's a shame, because it's not the sort of thing that deserves to be maligned. Even Vancouver's own festival guide described it as the "best ninja movie ever made," without the faintest hint of how dizzyingly wacky it is. I can see how someone could hate this if they had their heart set on something that it's never going to be. I hate when people advise a viewer to leave their brain at the door when going in, but in this case, you will definitely have to leave behind your cynicism.
Review by Teresa Nieman
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