Year:
2002
Length: 80min
Role:
Future Challenger
Director:
Ryuhei Kitamura
Action Director:
Yuji Shimomura
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Average:
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Aragami:
The Raging God of Battle
This was part of the Duel
Project, a
directors' duel between Ryuhei Kitamura and
Yukihiko Tsutsumi.
The rules were: finish film in around 7 days, 2-3 actors, 1 room, and 1
character has to die. Yukihiko shot 2LDK,
a movie about two girls who share an apartment battling it out
for a single acting role. Ryuhei made Aragami. He explains that
filming was a "battle against yourself, the situation,
time, and money." According to
Ryuhei at the Tokyo International Fantastic Movie Festival, Yukihiko sent him a letter
admitting defeat.
It starts with a dying samurai being brought to a secluded
mountain temple by his wounded friend (played by Hideo
Sakaki). The friend dies, while the far more wounded samurai
miraculously recovers. He is very grateful to his caretakers, a
mysterious woman who never speaks and a charismatic man who
appears to run the temple. They treat him to good food and
exotic foreign drinks. But his pleasant stay quickly becomes a
nightmare, for nothing is as it seems.
"A man may look decent but he may betray his friends. There
are prostitutes who look pure. A man may look evil, but he may
be decent," explains his host, who reveals himself to be
none other than Aragami, an immortal who lives for the thrill of
battle... and that the samurai just ate his friend's specially
prepared liver, making him immortal, as well. Aragami says that
he has spent many years looking for a man worthy enough to kill
him, and asks the freaked out samurai to duel him as payment for
saving his life. They drink some more, and philosophize about
the complexities of their predicament, but eventually get
down to business.
Tak has a very small role here. I didn't think it could get smaller
than in Godzilla: Final Wars, yet I was wrong. He comes in at
the very end as a future challenger, in his black leather and
sunglasses, armed
to the teeth. He lays down his gun samurai-style before him, and we are to assume the new duel begins,
because the movie ends... grr. Still, it is a good movie. The
character of Aragami
(played by Masaya
Kato) is very interesting. One of the swords he used was
actually Hideo Sakaki's sword from Versus.
back
to shrine
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