Review of Rurouni Kenshin Part III: The Legend Ends (2014) by Yvan C — 27 Nov 2014

As a firm believer on judging the film adaptations of lighter media and traditional literature - novels, short stories, manga, anime, comic books etc - separately, I've done my fair share of reading/watching something and then experiencing it being adapted into a live medium format. There have been movies that surpassed the paper-to-film translation i.e. American Psycho (2000) and Filth (2013); just as there have been movies that have failed to translate well. Unfortunately, Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends belongs to the latter.

The Legend Ends is the finale to the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy and the second-parter to the Kyoto Inferno, and as previously mentioned in Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, the two movies have gone to extra lengths to remove important story arcs or character development to fits its constrained screen time and to set its focus primarily on the lead titular character; a fact that it is all the more evident in The Legend Ends.

Iconic fight scenes have been watered down into simple brawl scenes, with a pivotal fight scene that also served as character development from the manga/anime between two characters who end up talking about their motivations, past, goals and techniques, was turned into a laughably bad five second encounter that my brain said "**** it; they obviously don't care about the other characters" and switched off completely.

The mercenary unit pivotal to the very plot, the Juppongatana (Ten Swords) - name dropped twice and shown partially in Kyoto Inferno - are nothing but an afterthought in this despite being set up previously, with more than half of its eleven members either going missing or presumably dying off-screen even though they were casted and promoted for the movie. The series' many nuances were left as blank slates despite being thrown at the screen consistently. If Kyoto Inferno's major flaw was the removal of crucial character development arcs, then The Legend Ends' flaws are very much the same and how it doesn't tie up most of the things its predecessor had set up, or what the final entry introduces but never bothers to explain.

There is nothing wrong with changing a source material to fit only the main character, a different ending, a new plot or even a new direction (Children of Men), but Kyoto Inferno and The Legend Ends have drastically changed the source material to the point that it adds nothing new to surpass the original material and feels inherently devoid of character.

However, The Legend Ends' flaws in utilizing its story and characters doesn't detract from the filmmaking that has been poured into it, as the quality has been brought forward from Kyoto Inferno with the brilliant direction, beautiful cinematography and how it brings out the picturesque Meiji era Japan, as the movie is aided by a pulpy score grounded with traditional Japanese instruments. The slick sword fighting choreography - some of the best in the trilogy and samurai movies as a whole - and acting have all surpassed the previous two movies, with the four-against-one group battle in The Legend Ends fiery climax perfectly capturing the flawless sword fighting spectacle that the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy has come to associate itself with.

Casual moviegoers craving for a samurai epic will have their minds blown by The Legend Ends, but long-time fans of the manga/anime will probably be disappointed with how this niche movie delivers badly, because this is what this live-adaptation trilogy is; a niche series of films. The samurai subgenre is pretty niche as it is, but when a movie is made from a source material that not everyone would've read or watched, it's double the niche. While Kyoto Inferno was a progressive step in the right direction from the first entry two years ago, The Legend Ends is simply a beautifully made sequel, rather than being a true masterpiece to succeed its predecessors to end the live-adaptation of Himura Kenshin on a high note.