Warner Bro. Pictures teased audiences with the first trailer of the highly anticipated Ronin thriller “Blade of the Immortal.”
The trailer is a jam-packed 30 seconds. Not much of the plot is revealed but we do see the superstar cast all banged up, bloody, and ready for battle. Iconic Japanese singer and actor Takuya Kimura (Love and Honor (2006), Space Battleship Yamato (2010), and Hero (2007 & 2015)) plays the cursed immortal samurai “Manji”. The teaser also shows the rest of the cast: Hana Sugisaki as heroine Rin Asano, Sota Fukushi as Kagehisa Anotsu, Hayato Ichihara as Shira, Erika Toda as Makie Otono-Tachibana, and Ebizo Ichikawa as Eiku Shizuma.
The film is helmed by critically acclaimed and prolific cult director Takaski Miike. Miike is known for his masterful oeuvre ranging from the bizarre, the dramatic, the controversial and of course the ultra violent. His films Audition (1999), Ichi the Killer (2001), 13 Assasins (2010) Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), Shield of Straw (2013), Over Your Dead Body (2014), and As The Gods Will (2014), among others are stirring, provocative, and highly entertaining.
Blade of the Immortal is based from the popular Japanese manga series by Hiroaki Samura. The neo period action drama chronicles the immortal swordsman, Manji, who must slay 1000 evildoers so that he can finally lift the heavy curse of everlasting life. Given Takashi Miike’s penchant for gore and bloodshed, Manji’s righteous killing spree is sure to be bloody, intense, and nothing short of awesome.
Blade of the Immortal opens in Japan April 2017.