Entertainment

Violent New Samurai Movie's Hero Is Like Darth Maul With a Katana

by Alex Wong

If you thought a movie about an immortal samurai from the director of 13 Assassins and Audition couldn’t get any crazier, think again. The hero of Blade of the Immortal will pull a Darth Maul at some point in the film.

On Wednesday, Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing dropped the trailer for the Takashi Miike-directed film, which features plenty of intense action. Notably, when the samurai and his companion are surrounded, he takes a page from the Darth Maul playbook by joining his two swords together, and proceeding to cut a bloody path through a group of warriors.

Based on the manga by Hiroaki Samura, the movie follows a samurai named Manji (Takuya Kimura) who can’t die, a curse which will be broken when he’s able to kill enough evil men. A young girl (played by Hana Sugisaki) asks him to help her avenge the the murder of her family, setting them both on a quest for vengeance.

Blade of the Immortal is Miike’s 100th film, and if the trailer is any indication, it’s got a healthy dose of the crazy, stylish, and violent blend that the director has developed over the years.

Blade of the Immortal premiered in Japan on April 29. The film will begin a limited theatrical release in the United States on November 3.