jmovie: Dororo
Jan. 13th, 2008 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreAh, Japan...you and your "just like manga"(because it's based on one) insane samurai-ish shonen action movies whose sole purpose is to make everyone who sees it run around screaming "CCCCRRRRRAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKK!!! SWORD WEILDING MONSTER FIGHTING EMOTASTIC CCCCCCCRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!"
In this case, our emotastic hero is Hyakki-maru, also known as Dororo. Years ago, Hyakki-maru's father, with half a dozen arrows sticking out of his back that he didn't seem to notice, made a deal with some demons: If he gave them his unborn son's body, they would give him the ability to conquer the world. He was pretty cool with this. (Wait, DIDN'T I JUST READ SOMETHING WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER'S FATHER SOLD HIS UNBORN FOR POWER??? *sigh*) When the baby was born, he only had a head and torso, and was alive despite missing all of his organs. Mom saved him from dad and sent him down a river, Moses style, and he was found by Mad Scientist Medicine Man, who then used alchemy(I think) to turn the bodies of dead children into limbs and organs for Hyakki-maru. In Hyakki-maru's fake arms, he installs two swords, one of which makes things blow up, and Hyakki-maru can remove the fake arms to fight, and then reattach them. When grown, Hyakki-maru sets off to find and slay the 48 demons who have hios various body parts. As he kills each one, the body part the demon has regrows on his own body. Along the way, he meets a female thief who pretends to be a boy, who refuses to tell him her name, but decides she likes "Dororo." She wants the exploding sword so she can get revenge for the death of her family. They go on many adventures and make many demons blow up, set to jaunty music(I'm particularly fond of the Noh masked tree demon that spewed sakura feathers at them.)
Naturally, of course, they must have a Big Conflict to wrap the movie up, and we learn that it was scum!Dad who killed Dororo's family. WOE! EMO! ANGST! Cue much drama and fighting and and utterly awesome final fight.
Yes, it's cheap entertainment, but it's MASSIVELY ENTERTAINING cheap entertainment.
PEOPLE! He removes his arms to fight! When he gets his real body parts back, the fake ones either fall off or get puked up and then disintegrate! Not only is he cool with his girlfriend taking his name and going around acting like a boy, he actually calls her a boy(probably because he gets kneed if he treats her like a girl, and he apparently got that part back inbetween the origin story and the main action)! He rides bird demons! He battles 30 foot tongues! He fights demons who SPEW SAKURA PETALS! And his WOE! EMO! ANGST! MANPAIN! moments were glorious, as only manga and things based on manga can be.
Oh, and it has Eita. Eita is always a nice bonus. Especially as I wasn't expecting him to randomly appear halfway through.
Also, I think the girl who played Dororo must just enjoy genderbending roles...I'm pretty sure she played the Historical Personage of Questionable Gender(in the movie, male in history) in Taitei no Ken.
Uhm...he has 24 body parts left to find. I demand a sequel.
Incidentally, there are TWO MANGA with this plot...there's also a manga called Madara...I investigated when I first heard of Dororo and found 2 different series. So either two people in this world came up with that plot, or there's a mangaka out there with an awesome but limited imagination.
In this case, our emotastic hero is Hyakki-maru, also known as Dororo. Years ago, Hyakki-maru's father, with half a dozen arrows sticking out of his back that he didn't seem to notice, made a deal with some demons: If he gave them his unborn son's body, they would give him the ability to conquer the world. He was pretty cool with this. (Wait, DIDN'T I JUST READ SOMETHING WHERE THE MAIN CHARACTER'S FATHER SOLD HIS UNBORN FOR POWER??? *sigh*) When the baby was born, he only had a head and torso, and was alive despite missing all of his organs. Mom saved him from dad and sent him down a river, Moses style, and he was found by Mad Scientist Medicine Man, who then used alchemy(I think) to turn the bodies of dead children into limbs and organs for Hyakki-maru. In Hyakki-maru's fake arms, he installs two swords, one of which makes things blow up, and Hyakki-maru can remove the fake arms to fight, and then reattach them. When grown, Hyakki-maru sets off to find and slay the 48 demons who have hios various body parts. As he kills each one, the body part the demon has regrows on his own body. Along the way, he meets a female thief who pretends to be a boy, who refuses to tell him her name, but decides she likes "Dororo." She wants the exploding sword so she can get revenge for the death of her family. They go on many adventures and make many demons blow up, set to jaunty music(I'm particularly fond of the Noh masked tree demon that spewed sakura feathers at them.)
Naturally, of course, they must have a Big Conflict to wrap the movie up, and we learn that it was scum!Dad who killed Dororo's family. WOE! EMO! ANGST! Cue much drama and fighting and and utterly awesome final fight.
Yes, it's cheap entertainment, but it's MASSIVELY ENTERTAINING cheap entertainment.
PEOPLE! He removes his arms to fight! When he gets his real body parts back, the fake ones either fall off or get puked up and then disintegrate! Not only is he cool with his girlfriend taking his name and going around acting like a boy, he actually calls her a boy(probably because he gets kneed if he treats her like a girl, and he apparently got that part back inbetween the origin story and the main action)! He rides bird demons! He battles 30 foot tongues! He fights demons who SPEW SAKURA PETALS! And his WOE! EMO! ANGST! MANPAIN! moments were glorious, as only manga and things based on manga can be.
Oh, and it has Eita. Eita is always a nice bonus. Especially as I wasn't expecting him to randomly appear halfway through.
Also, I think the girl who played Dororo must just enjoy genderbending roles...I'm pretty sure she played the Historical Personage of Questionable Gender(in the movie, male in history) in Taitei no Ken.
Uhm...he has 24 body parts left to find. I demand a sequel.
Incidentally, there are TWO MANGA with this plot...there's also a manga called Madara...I investigated when I first heard of Dororo and found 2 different series. So either two people in this world came up with that plot, or there's a mangaka out there with an awesome but limited imagination.