Re:Born

This was fantastic; i saw other reviewers reference Ninja Assassin & The Raid for this film, which are both favorites of mine, & they were spot on. i loved everything about this movie. if you're fans of the same type of genre, then you'll love this one too.

Re:Born is without doubt the movie with the most knife stabs and slices that I have ever seen. Blades flash across the screen in an almost balletic display of close combat martial arts skills, as flesh gives way to metal in a barrage of attacks that will have you wincing on many occasions.

Toshiro (Tak Sakaguchi) is a former special forces operative who now lives a quiet life as a shopkeeper. He is still haunted by the impulses that made him an unstoppable killer, and when his former commanding officer re-emerges from his past seeking revenge, Toshiro is forced to go on a killing spree against a squad of ruthless assassins.

Clocking in at 100 minutes, Re:Born isn't all about the action and gives time for the narrative to play out the backstory and life of Toshiro. However, it is the insane action set-pieces that drive this movie forward and have you looking open mouthed in astonishment at each and every fight scene. There is one particular 30 minute segment where Toshiro and 2 accomplices are making their way up a tree ridden hill facing a seemingly innumerable amount of enemies, that left me breathless by the time the last droplet of blood had been spilled. Toshiro's distinctive pre-fight shoulder movements encapsulating the fluidity of his deadly strikes with blades, fists, and even a folding shovel!

The close combat fighting is exemplified in one particular fight that occurs in a phone booth...while Toshiro continues his call as he fends off the attack of yet another person who is out to kill him.

Re:Born is an action movie with characters that are given the time for you to feel empathy with, all the while never far away from a crazy fight scene where knife will inevitably meet flesh. This deserves to be seen by everyone and looks absolutely superb on this first time Blu-ray release in the UK. Highly recommended.

Overall, I would recommend "Re:Born" to fans of the action genre. It may be short on story, but if you like martial-arts and well-choreographed fight sequences there is a lot to enjoy here. A solid thriller that puts some effort into creating an interesting world, characters that you care about, and some great set-pieces

Reborn is a full fledged action thriller that will be pleasing to the devoted fans of the genre

But for someone like me who likes to have action and drama in a balanced form....it was impressive but still fell on the average line.

BUT at the same time I knew what I was getting and so I did ignore the fact that it kept the story sidelined and since like i said it's a full fledged action movie I watched it with keeping that in mind

The opening scene was unimpressive

But the first half did mix drama and action sequences well and I was really impressed with the action sequences (it was savage and stylish) in the first half especially the fountain pen scene which was

Its the second half that is jam-packed with lengthy action sequences and sidelines the story completely but the action sequences felt more draggy to me now but was still able to maintain its style...the hand-to-hand combat is highly appreciable and the wave movements were intruiging

Most of the actors laid out convincing performances especially and obv the lead Tak Sakaguchi as TOSHIRO AKA THE LEGENDARY "GHOST"

I'd recommend this movie to hardcore action fans especially to those who likes throat slitting,lengthy action sequences and hand-to-hand combats I won't recommend this to those who will try to find logic in it or to those who..like me... are more interested in action dramas than full-fledged action movie.

Fast paced martial arts film with enough originality to be worthy of a recommendation. This is worth watching for the superbly executed fight scenes. The one in the phone booth sums up the style of the movie and is the most memorable for me. As the movie progressed I wondered how the pace could be held to the end, my mind can only take so much, but it just got more and more tense. I found myself almost holding my breath in the final scenes. OK so there is a background story to justify the high octane killing but the strength of the movie is mainly the action. Toshiro nicknamed the legendary Ghost was a former special ops soldier and unstoppable killer. He's now given that up and living as a shopkeeper but is still haunted by his past. His former commanding officer is seeking revenge so Toshiro has to return to killing and deal with what seems like an unlimited number of 'fight to the last' assassins.

My rating 6/10 Highly recommended if you're into exciting martial art knife combat with lots of blood. If not then this may seem like 115 minutes of ridiculous gratuitous killing.